Fair Play
Louise Hegarty
This is a murder mystery.
This is a story about love.
Or is it? . . .
Fair Play is the puzzle-box story of two competing tales that brilliantly lay bare the real truth of life - the terrifying mystery of grief.
'A treat – clever, confident, and always surprising' - Paul Murray, author of THE BEE STING
'Sally Rooney meets The Secret History' - The Sunday Times
Abigail and her brother Benjamin have always been close. To celebrate his birthday, Abigail hires a grand old house and gathers their friends together for a murder mystery party. As the night goes on, they drink too much and play games. Relationships are forged, consolidated or frayed. Someone kisses someone they shouldn’t, someone else’s heart is broken.
In the morning, everyone wakes up – except Benjamin.
Suddenly everything is not quite what it seems. An eminent detective arrives determined to find Benjamin’s killer. The house now has a butler, a gardener and a housekeeper. This is a locked-room mystery, and everyone is a suspect.
As Abigail attempts to fathom her brother’s unexpected death in a world that has been turned upside down, she begins to wonder whether perhaps the true mystery might have been his life . . .
'Dazzling, formally subversive, brimming with compassion' - Colin Walsh, author of KALA
'A dark, twisting, dismantling work . . . I've never read anything like it' - Emma Stonex, author of THE LAMPLIGHTERS
'A triumph' - Lisa McInerney, author of THE GLORIOUS HERESIES
Product Details
About Louise Hegarty
Reviews for Fair Play
Paul Murray, author of The Bee Sting As soon as I finished this fiendishly elegant jigsaw puzzle of a book, I dashed back and scoured its pages trying to find if Hegarty had planted a glinting, hidden clue somewhere to unlock the mystery
The Sunday Times
Dazzling, formally subversive, brimming with compassion, Fair Play explodes the conventions of a mystery in order to confront us with the genuinely mysterious. An emotional ambush of a novel, this book will delight readers – then it will haunt them
Colin Walsh, author of Kala 'It takes skill, and even a sense of anarchy, to produce a novel as funny, baffling and occasionally moving as Fair Play'
John Boyne, The Irish Times A fiendishly designed, intricately layered, psychologically astute tale, and so elegantly written too. I've never read anything like it . . . a story of striking originality. I am full of admiration.
Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters An ingenious puzzle-box of a novel . . . Sad, funny, clever, engrossing; this is a wonderful debut.
Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13 '[an] ingenious debut novel'
The Telegraph With each turn of a page the plot thickens masterfully and the form twists like a wicked game. Get to the Louise Hegarty party early, she’s brilliant.
Jodie Harsh, author of You Had To Be There Fair Play is ambitious and unpredictable and riotous and at the same time full of meaning and compassion. It's a triumph
Lisa McInerney, author of The Glorious Heresies I loved it . . . intriguing, smart, fun, and devastatingly poignant . . . I shall now read everything Louise Hegarty ever writes
Effie Black, author of In Defence of the Act Each time you think you’ve got the measure of this clever and immensely readable debut, it turns around at the door, looks you in the eye, and offers up one more twist, one more audacious shattering of genre and convention that you never saw coming
Andrew McMillan, author of Pity 'A smart, intricately plotted novel'
iNews Louise Hegarty is such a talented writer. In Fair Play, she delivers a Rubik's Cube of a debut novel, both an expert evocation of a Golden Age mystery and something else entirely. I was moved and surprised and I can't wait to see what she does next.
Catherine Kirwan, author of Cruel Deeds In crime novels, a death is often merely the inciting incident. Murder gets the party started, so to speak. Grief, the monster in the shadows that keeps you awake at night, rarely features. That Louise Hegarty has not only upended the genre, but combined this with a moving exploration of loss, makes this inventive debut all the more impressive.
Irish Independent
'A fantastical locked room mystery'
PA Review