Synopsis
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.
Details
03 April 2025
9781035036165Reviews
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
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 mysteryThe Sunday Times
A brilliant dissection of the murder mystery format . . . Both funny and moving, it’s a really impressive debutThe Times, 'Best Books of 2025 So Far'
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 themColin Walsh, author of Kala
