Cleeve is not for everyone…

When Eve’s husband is appointed housemaster at his old boarding school, Cleeve College, she gives up her life in London to join him. But the isolation and loss of autonomy threaten both her happiness and her marriage.

The arrival of Fen, an enigmatic artist and wife of the new Classics teacher, is a welcome distraction. Fen doesn’t play by the rules, and she and Eve enter into a game of escalating dares, disrupting the delicate balance of school life.

Then, the morning after Hazard Night, a tradition that allows the students to run wild and play pranks for one day, a body is found. Someone has been murdered. And it seems everyone has something to hide…

OUT NOW

"AN AWARD-WINNING PERFORMANCE."
THE TIMES

"CLEVER, SHARP AND DELICIOUSLY DARK ... A ONE-SITTING READ."
ANDREA MARA

"A TREAT. EXCELLENT INSIGHTS ... ELEGANT PROSE."

DAILY MAIL

REVIEWS

Praise for Hazard Night

"Vaughan slowly and ominously unpicks the rotten core of Cleeve, a place where 'female rage had little currency' and where privilege ends up being no protection. Atmospheric and sinister." Guardian

"A delctable slice of dark acedemia, dripping with irony." The Times Crime Club

"Cleverly written and thoroughly enjoyable." Belfast Telegraph

Praise for Let's Pretend

"As in early Martin Amis, the depravity and exuberant wit cannot quite silence 'the still, sad music of humanity'. It's an award-winning performance." The Times

"The ultimate twist is both sad and shocking in its credibility." Literary Review

"You can't help but be captivated" Belfast Telegraph

Praise for The Favour

Irish Times pick for Best Crime Fiction of 2021

"A treat ... excellent insights ... elegant prose." Daily Mail

"With a frisson of uneasiness throughout, this intensely captivating thriller will cast its spell, leaving you on the edge with unexpected twists." Heat Magazine

"Devious and manipulative, she pulls the reader through this tale of gilded youth misbehaving and paying the price. The tension comes not so much from whether the truth about the crime will emerge as from whether or not Ada will ultimately get what she wants or the punishment she so richly deserves." Literary Review

"Riveting ... an enormously engrossing, satisfying book - darkly funny, sharply ironic, keenly observed and elegantly written." Western Mail

"A gripping plot, fascinating characters and a glorious backdrop ... a hugely ambitious debut that delivers handsomely on its promise." Irish Times

"Ambition, lust, family secrets and lashings of Italian art - what could go wrong? A compulsive story, written with steely intelligence and wicked prose, that should propel the author into the bestseller lists."

Elizabeth Buchan

"Absorbing, intelligent and atmospheric with a razor-sharp twist. Genius."

Elizabeth Haynes

"Intelligent, elegant and immersive ... I found myself absorbed by a complex narrator who made me feel both empathy and horror." Claire Kendal

"This is a book that will keep you wonderfully off-balance; it feels as if you are being trusted with an unsettling and dangerous secret ... [Vaughan] writes with understated eloquence, slowly allowing the intrigue and tension to build ... A well-written and rewarding read, The Favour slips into shadowy thoughts and finds the darkness that dwells there." www.lovereading.co.uk

ABOUT LAURA

I grew up in Wales on the edge of the Brecon Beacons, which has inspired a life-long love of wild landscapes and ancient myths. As a teenager, I studied Art History in Italy, then Classics at Bristol and Oxford. After five years working in publishing, I left to focus on my own writing career - writing eleven books for children and young adults. The Favour, my first novel for adults, was published in 2021 followed by Let's Pretend in 2022. My new novel, Hazard Night, will be published in A 2023.

I live in South East London with my husband and two children.