Description

This is a murder mystery.
This is a story about love.
Or is it? . . .

‘A treat . . . Takes on the biggest questions of life and death’ – Paul Murray, author of The Bee Sting

‘Dazzling’ – Colin Walsh, author of Kala
‘Brilliant’ – The Times
‘Ingenious’ – The Telegraph
‘Terrific’ – The New York Times
‘Heartbreaking’ – The Guardian
‘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 . . .

Louise Hegarty’s Fair Play is the puzzle-box story that brilliantly lays bare the real truth of life – the terrifying mystery of grief.

Publisher Review

Louise Hegarty’s genre-splicing debut is a treat – clever, confident, and always surprising, a mystery story that ingeniously escapes the locked room of the genre to take on the biggest questions of life and death — Paul Murray, author of The Bee Sting 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 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 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 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