Harper
Fair Play
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“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
For fans of Anthony Horowitz and Lucy Foley, a wonderfully original, genre-breaking literary debut from Ireland that’s an homage to the brilliant detective novels of the early twentieth century, a twisty modern murder mystery, and a searing exploration of grief and loss.
A group of friends gather at an Airbnb on New Year’s Eve. It is Benjamin’s birthday, and his sister Abigail is throwing him a jazz-age Murder Mystery themed party. As the night plays out, champagne is drunk, hors d’oeuvres consumed, and relationships forged, consolidated or frayed. Someone kisses the wrong person; someone else’s heart is broken.
In the morning, all of them wake up—except Benjamin.
As Abigail attempts to wrap her mind around her brother’s death, an eminent detective arrives determined to find Benjamin's killer. In this mansion, suddenly complete with a butler, gardener and housekeeper, everyone is a suspect, and nothing is quite as it seems.
Will the culprit be revealed? And how can Abigail, now alone, piece herself back together in the wake of this loss?
Gripping and playful, sharp and profoundly moving, Fair Play plumbs the depths of the human heart while subverting one of our most popular genres.
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Book Details
ISBN:
9780063360556
EAN:
9780063360556
Binding:
Hardcover
Pages:
288
Authors:
Louise Hegarty
Publisher:
Harper
Published Date: 2025-22-04
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I rarely stop reading a book. This novel is flat terrible. I don’t like negative reviews if I do not like the book, I just move on. Not here. I wasted my money and time. If u want boredom u got it here
The English manor house mystery is familiar to everyone even if one has never actually read one. The genre is a staple in entertainment. Hegarty cleverly deconstructs the mystery exposing its buttresses and beams. This is good fun for any mystery enthusiast. The thing that gives the novel depth is its attention to the vagaries of grief and to the impossibility of connection.
The author takes about the first one quarter of the book setting out, fairly well, what could have been a decent retro whodunit. But then she launches into a mishmash of disconnected and inconsistent threads, alternating between a mawkish accounting of one character's overwrought grief and a gimmick-laden repetitive survey of the possible outcomes of an investigation that goes nowhere. She leads all this generously with cutesie asides and supposed inside jokes. I guess all of this is easier than developing interesting characters or plot, but those are completely lacking.
Confusing! I kept reading hoping it would all start to come together.Seems to be one of those "choose your own ending" type of books my kids read years ago! Never did figure out why the story started at an Airbnb yet all the questioning by the police was at the family estate! Also,Very strange ending.I think the biggest mystery was how this book got published to begin with!
I had really high hopes for Fair Play. It was actually on my list of most anticipated mystery releases of 2025. Unfortunately, it really didn’t live up to my expectations.I understand what the author was attempting to do with this book, but ultimately I think the execution was poor. It resulted in an overall unsatisfying story that I think was maybe not marketed as it should have been.Up until maybe 60% through, I actually liked it well enough, despite the inconsistencies and somewhat odd writing style. I was probably going to give it a 3.25-3.5 star rating up to that point. The last 40% of the book ruined it completely for me though. It felt like it was trying a little too hard to be like the Ernest Cunningham series while giving a sort of ham-fisted and pretentious commentary on grief (and another subject that I don’t want to spoil in case someone does decide to read the book).I’m just disappointed with my lack of enjoyment of Fair Play. I desperately wanted to like it, but it just ended up not being for me. There are likely plenty of people with differing opinions though, so if you’re on the fence about reading it, check out some of the higher rated reviews to decide. The mystery genre is full of variety, so there’s bound to be others that will love this book for what it is.Thank you Harper Books for the gifted review copy. All opinions are my own.
