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Ward D

Pages
320
Published
2023
Language
English

Synopsis

Medical student Amy Brenner has been dreading one rotation above all others: an overnight shift on Ward D, the hospital’s locked inpatient psychiatric unit. From the moment the doors seal behind her, the night feels wrong, and Amy can’t shake the sense that something dangerous is moving through the ward. As the hours stretch on and patients and staff start to disappear without explanation, it becomes clear that not everyone behind the locked doors is who they claim to be, and that Amy may not make it to morning. Her present danger keeps pulling at wounds from her own past, blurring the line between the unit’s secrets and her own. Set almost entirely in a single confined location over one long night, the novel wrings claustrophobic suspense from a setting designed to keep people in.

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About the author

F
Freida McFadden

Freida McFadden is the pen name of a practicing American physician who specializes in treating brain injury, and one of the best-selling psychological-thriller authors of her generation. She published under the pseudonym from her 2013 debut onward, keeping her identity hidden so her medical patients wouldn’t connect her to her fiction, and only revealed her real name publicly in April 2026. The name itself is a medical inside joke — “FREIDA” is the acronym for the American Medical Association’s...

Characters

Amy BrennerProtagonist

A medical student whose overnight rotation on the locked psychiatric unit turns into a fight to survive the night, while her own buried past resurfaces.

Jade CarpenterSupporting

Amy's estranged best friend from eight years earlier, now a patient on the ward.

Dr. Richard BeckSupporting

The physician covering Ward D on the night of Amy's shift.

Ramona DuttonSupporting

The nurse working the overnight shift on the ward.

Mary CummingsSupporting

A patient on the unit, who keeps a set of sharpened steel knitting needles.

All characters in Ward D

Frequently asked questions

  • What is "Ward D" about?

    A medical student’s dreaded overnight shift on a locked inpatient psychiatric ward turns deadly as patients and staff start to vanish.

  • When was it published?

    It was originally published in 2023, with a wider Poisoned Pen Press edition following later.

  • Where is it set?

    Almost entirely on a locked inpatient psychiatric ward, over a single overnight shift.

  • Is it a standalone?

    Yes, it is a standalone thriller.

  • Does it draw on real medical settings?

    Yes. The hospital detail reflects McFadden’s background as a practicing physician.

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