In a Nutshell: Trans-European espionage thriller | Cinematic page-turner following a teenager’s ruthlessly fearless journey into a criminal underworld to find her diplomat dad.
Seventeen-year-old Gwendolyn Bloom has spent much of her life on the move due to her dad’s job as a US diplomat. They now live in New York, where she’s an outcast at the elite school paid for by his employers. But it turns out that the constant moving and snobby school are the lesser evils of her dad’s career. When he vanishes, and it emerges that he’s actually a CIA agent and suspected of working for “another side”, Gwendolyn is forced to search for him herself. Having assumed a new identity, the path of Gwendolyn’s high-stakes quest leads her to the dirty edges of Paris, Berlin, and Prague, where she infiltrates the brutal underworld of “the biggest crime family in Mitteleuropa”.
This is an edgy, twisty, plot-driven thriller with an open-ended conclusion that will leave fans desperate to discover what Gwendolyn does next: she’s already shown that she’s prepared do what it takes - to do anything - to find her father, even if it means committing a few crimes of her own… ~ Joanne Owen
A groundbreaking YA thriller following a diplomat's daughter from New York to Europe's criminal underworld in search of her kidnapped father. The Cruelty is the first book from a groundbreaking new YA voice: an utterly compelling thriller. When Gwendolyn Bloom realizes that her father has been kidnapped, she has to take matters into her own hands. She traces him from New York City across the dark underbelly of Europe, taking on a new identity to survive in a world of brutal criminal masterminds. As she slowly leaves behind her schoolgirl self, she realizes that she must learn the terrifying truth about herself. To overcome the cruelty she encounters, she must also embrace it.
'[...] well-crafted first novel [...] It's a premise that demands a degree of suspended disbelief, but Bergstrom manages Gwen's transformation from high school student to assassin believably enough, and he doesn't avoid the toll Gwen's actions take on her. Not for the weak of heart, this is a grim, fast-paced tale that stands knee-deep in dead bodies.' Publishers Weekly
Author
About Scott Bergstrom
Scott Bergstrom was an advertising executive in Manhattan for many years before moving to Denver to focus on his writing. He is an avid traveller and photographer who is fascinated by the darker, unloved corners of the world's great cities. The Cruelty is his first book.
