Life.Culture.Discovery.

Stanford grad’s escapist novel set in Singapore high society lands her a two-book publishing deal at the age of 23

The Fraud Squad, a debut novel about Singapore socialites, their indulgent fashion and decadent parties, landed Kyla Zhao, 23, a two-book publishing deal

Stints as a fashion writer at Harper’s Bazaar, Tatler and now Vogue in Singapore gave valuable insights and inspired some characters and plot points, says Zhao

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Singaporean fashion writer Kyla Zhao has landed a two-book deal thanks to The Fraud Squad, her debut novel about high society in the city state. Photo: Kyla Jiayi Zhao

Published: 7:15am, 2 Aug 2021Updated: 10:04am, 16 Aug 2021

When Singapore-born Kyla Zhao went looking for a light read to entertain her during lockdown in the United States last year, she couldn’t find one that suited her taste. So she wrote her own. Now The Fraud Squad, a dip into the city state’s high society, has landed the 23-year-old a two-book deal with Berkley Publishing, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

“I started writing The Fraud Squad last summer because I was craving a fun and breezy book that I could escape into amid the malaise of our pandemic-ridden world,” Zhao says. “But most of the books in this genre feature Western settings and characters.

“Writing a book set in Singapore, with Singaporean characters, was also my way of staying connected to home while living alone in California, 9,000 miles [14,500km] away from loved ones, and unsure as to when I’d see them again because of travel restrictions.”

Zhao moved to California in 2017 to study, graduating this year from Stanford University with an MA in communications (media studies) and a BA in psychology. She is now a fashion and lifestyle writer for Vogue Singapore.

A selection of magazines Zhao has bylines in. Photo: Kyla Jiayi Zhao

“Almost everyone in my immediate and extended families has a background in science and engineering, but my whole life, I’ve been the ‘humanities/arts’ oddball,” she says, adding her only other work of fiction is a Harry Potter fan fiction piece she wrote aged 10. “It’s still out there on the World Wide Web and it’s about Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger flirting through pickup lines. Thankfully, the romance scenes in The Fraud Squad are better written.”