The protagonist of the story-within-a-story, Freddie is an Australian writer on fellowship in Boston. She is the point-of-view character in the story-within-the-story, so her biases shape the presentation of events and perhaps make her an unreliable narrator at times. At the start of the story-within-a-story, Freddie is a woman consumed by the people around her because she is a pantser who uses her life and people around her as inspiration for her writing.

She is also a fish out of water who instantly bonds with Whit, Marigold, and Cain not only because she is in a strange place when she hears the scream, but also because she lacks other relationships that ground her. Her sister died when she was a girl, and her parents are cordial, but they are also distant. When Freddie encounters the other three in the library, she morphs into a person whose exterior life is just as intense as her interior life.

There is an abrupt shift in her character when she falls in love with Cain and commits to tracking down the person responsible for the crimes occurring around the four friends. Her sudden passion for Cain inspires her to engage in risky, sometimes illegal acts like giving Cain money once he becomes a fugitive.