Debra Jo Immrgut’s The Captives brings two disparate people together in a most startling way in this psychological thriller with a surprise ending.

Miranda Greene, daughter of a one-term congressman, languishes in prison under a long sentence after losing herself in a brutal crime.

Frank Lundquist is the prison psychologist who is treating her, laboring under his own broken dreams and setbacks.

Despite knowing the ethics are off, Frank continues to treat Miranda when he recognizes her as the object of a severe high school crush.
Frank and Miranda’s own tragedies make them ripe for a series of events that will have dangerous consequences as the book unfolds and readers see the backgrounds that shaped their young lives.

There’s a balance here between male and female, power and who has it. There are choices to be made on both sides, too.

With a devastating look inside a woman’s correctional facility and the life there, this has a noir feel to it as it unspools and hooks the reader in as an obsession takes hold.

Unpredictable and smart.