The Intruder

Name: The Intruder
Author: Freida McFadden
ISBN: 9781464260919

Freida McFadden

Suspense, Mystery, Thriller • 288 Pages • Audio Book: 8 hrs and 19 mins • Narrator: Joe Hempel, Patricia Santomasso, Tina Wolstencroft

Casey's cabin in the wilderness is not built for a hurricane. Her roof shakes, the lights flicker, and the tree outside her front door sways ominously in the wind. But she's a lot more worried about the girl she discovers lurking outside her kitchen window.
She’s young. She’s alone. And she’s covered in blood.
The girl won't explain where she came from or loosen her grip on the knife in her right hand. And when Casey makes a disturbing discovery in the middle of the night, things take a turn for the worse.
The girl has a dark secret. One she’ll kill to keep. And if Casey gets too close to the truth, she may not live to see the morning.

Casey - Protagonist
Eleanor (nickname Nell) - A 12 year old girl Casey found in her shed
Lee - Casey’s neighbor
Ella - Middle school student, 13 years old
Brittany - Popular girl at Ella’s school
Anton - Ella’s only friend
Brad - Anton’s little brother
John - Ella’s father
Jolene - Eleanor’s mother
Mrs Fleming - Elderly Neighbor would would pay Ella to do chores

Parts of this story are denoted as past (P).
Before moving to the cabin in the woods Casey was an elementary school teacher but she got fired after an incident.
(P) Ella’s mother is a hoarder who refuses to tell her who her father is, and she’s abusive - locking Ella in closets and burning her with cigarettes.
As the storm starts up Casey goes out to her shed to investigate a light where she finds a girl holding a switchblade and covered in blood.
Casey brings the girl inside, feeds her, and learns her name is Eleanor.
(P) Ella and Anton become friends.
(P) Ella goes to Mrs. Fleming’s house to do chores so she can get money for lunch but Mrs. Fleming accuses Ella of stealing from her and kicks her out.
(P) A few days later Ella tells us that Mrs. Fleming fell and hit her head badly during the night and is in hospital and Ella implies that she caused it.
Casey finds a paper Eleanor dropped, it’s a map leading to Casey’s house.
(P) Anton is in love with Ella, she just doesn’t see it.
(P) One day at school Brittany mocks Ella so Anton beats her with a rock and breaks half the bones in her face.
Eleanor leaves Casey’s house and Casey realizes Eleanor was looking for Lee’s house, not hers so she goes to Lee’s house.
(P) Finally fed up with being abused, Ella sets her house on fire with her mother sleeping inside and her mother dies.
We find out that Casey is Ella; her full name is Elizabeth Casey.
Eleanor confronts Lee about being her father and abandoning her and her mother.
Lee says it was his brother who dated her mother but he has been dead for years.
Eleanor finally explains why she was in the woods covered in blood. She says her mom’s boyfriend stabbed her mother and threatened to tell the cops Eleanor did it, so she ran away and came looking for her father.
(P) After the fire, social services takes Ella to live with her dad who explains he always wanted a relationship with her but her mother wouldn’t allow it.
Casey says she’s going to talk to the police about Eleanor but instead she goes to confront Jolene.
Casey tells us she lost her teaching job because she noticed signs of child abuse and reported it but nothing was done to protect the child so one day at pickup she broke down and started smashing the abusers car with a baseball bat.
Casey tortures and kills Jolene for being an abusive mother just like her own mother.
Epilogue: Casey sees a picture of Eleanor’s dad, it’s Anton.
Lee is actually Bradley, Anton’s little brother.
Lee goes to visit Anton in prison every Friday.
It was Anton who asked Lee to tell people he was dead; he didn’t want anyone, including Eleanor who Lee told him about, knowing he was spending his life in prison.
Anton is in jail for life because he beat his father to death after his father gave Lee a brutal beating when Lee was nineteen.
Lee is in love with Casey but he won’t allow himself to be with her without Anton’s permission and he’s too scared to ask, in case Anton says no.