A Necessary Cruelty

A gripping psychological thriller about dark family secrets and a twist that changes everything

She hired the perfect helper.
Now she's a stranger in her own home.

Claire Thompson is drowning—between her freelance career and two young children, exhaustion has become her default state. When she and her detached husband Mark hire Annika Jensen, a beautiful Danish au pair who seems impossibly competent, Claire finally thinks she can breathe again.

At first, Annika is everything they hoped for. The house runs smoothly. The children adore her. For the first time in years, Claire feels like she might survive motherhood.

But small things begin to feel wrong.

A coffee cup moved. A door left unlocked. Annika's "helpful suggestions" that sound almost like corrections. The way Mark lights up when Annika walks into a room. The children's sudden preference for bedtime stories from someone else.

When Claire tries to voice her concerns, she's met with confusion. Annika is perfect—what could possibly be wrong? Mark thinks she's being paranoid. Her best friend Sarah suggests she's just exhausted. Even Claire starts to doubt herself.

But the wrongness grows. And when Claire discovers something that makes her question everything about her life, she realizes the truth is far more dangerous than simple paranoia.

Someone has been planning this for a very long time.

Perfect for fans of Freida McFadden, Gillian Flynn, and Shari Lapena.

A Necessary Cruelty—the first standalone thriller in The Cruelty Collection. If you love unreliable narrators, shocking twists, and endings that change everything you thought you knew, you won't be able to put this down.

Buy A Necessary Cruelty today to discover what happens when the perfect helper has the perfect plan.

Repetitive

The first half, has a great storyline. But then became very repetitive. It became frustrating towards the end with the repetition

Virtual voice is terrible

The story was good, but virtual voice is just terrible!! VV said the same word about 10 different ways. Let real people tell the stories.

Redundancy

I have 3.5 hours left on this story. Feeling worn thin with the needless repetition. It’s a good enough story but frustrating. The endless second guessing and self doubt is now quite wearisome.
GET ON WITH IT ALREADY !!!

The voice takes all the joy of hearing the story & experience

This fake voice is terrible. It is not a joy or a great escape you can’t get lost in the story. It is blah

Repetitive nightmare

Where to start? This seems like it was written by AI. So repetitive. Narration did not help. The underlying plot was good and I slogged to the end just to see how it concluded. However I do not recommend it. The writing was poor. The delivery was worse.