Fair Play - by Louise Hegarty (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"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.

Review Quotes

"A terrific debut novel. . . . It's a witty, knowing homage to classic detective fiction, but also a deeply sensitive examination of the loneliness and confusion of grief--and a reminder that every sudden death is a mystery that can't be fully explained. . . . A bracing meditation on the different ways we perceive death (and fiction)." - New York Times Book Review

"Entertainingly avant-garde. . . . Ms. Hegarty is after more than a simulation of Golden Age mystery in the 21st century, mixing in elements that suggest a work of metafiction as written by the Marx Brothers. . . . Fair Play shows how the true mysteries of death and life can elude the consolations of genre fiction--even as Ms. Hegarty's audacious concoction transcends the limitations of form. Fair play, indeed." - Wall Street Journal

"[An] engaging, ingenious Möbius strip of a book is undoubtedly the most original crime novel you'll read all year." - The Guardian

"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

"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

"This isn't just a whodunit. It's also a playful, poignant metafictional puzzle that melds genre conventions with wit and heart . . . . Hegarty's novel is as much about storytelling and loss as it is about solving a crime. Clever nods to Golden Age mysteries, a delightfully odd detective and vividly drawn characters make this a standout debut. It's smart, surprising and sneakily emotional; a layered literary game that both satirizes and celebrates the mystery genre while exploring the messier truths it often tries to tidy away." - Seattle Times

"Oh, it's cunning, this splendid novel--like Knives Out with the blades whetted extra-sharp: a mystery to boggle the brain. But what's most surprising is how Louise Hegarty's lovely debut echoes in the heart long after the solution is revealed. Unguessable, irrepressible--and ultimately astonishing." - A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of End of Story and The Woman in the Window

"Brilliant . . . . Readers, especially fans of Richard Osman, will happily go along with the plot's many reversals and take heart in its surprisingly tender conclusion. Hegarty's wonderfully eccentric characters, expert knowledge of classic whodunits, and ability to balance silly hijinks and serious emotional stakes mark her as a writer worth keeping tabs on. For mystery lovers, this is a joy." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[Fair Play] honors the golden age of crime novels, just as it turns the genre on its head." - NPR

"It's a witty, knowing homage to classic detective fiction, but also a deeply sensitive examination of the loneliness and confusion of grief--and a reminder that every sudden death is a mystery that can't be fully explained... a bracing meditation on the different ways we perceive death (and fiction)." - New York Times

"[A] fiendishly elegant jigsaw puzzle of a book . . . . Like The Secret History, Hegarty's debut loves to braid the brainy with the earthy . . . . When it comes to whether you're in the hands of someone phenomenally talented here, who has constructed something entirely original, there's no mystery."

"Hegarty follows the conventions of all the great traditional mysteries . . . and then twists them. Fair Play is set in a rural Irish country home, an Airbnb rented by a group of friends to celebrate New Year's Eve with a murder-mystery theme party. When a guest is found dead the next morning, the friends are thrown into an investigation that references all the classic detective plot devices in such a twisty way that you'll discover there are many more questions (and, eventually, answers) than you first realized." - Elle, "Best Mysteries & Thrillers of 2025"

"I've been searching for a book that conjures the spirit of one of my absolute favorite movies Clue, and this might be the one to do it: a murder mystery party where suspects play predetermined archetypes, an Airbnb likely full of hidden rooms not featured on the listing (and perhaps a lurking host)--but also real gravitas about grief and loss juxtaposed with solving a murder in real-time? Now that's more compelling than any clue." - Paste Magazine, "The Most Anticipated Mystery and Thriller Books of 2025"

"Readers of both classic mysteries and literary fiction will enjoy this intermingling of the two in Louise Hegarty's first novel, Fair Play, an utterly fresh approach to the standard whodunit that adds emotional heft to playful pastiche . . . . Hagerty skillfully manipulates the genre, calling attention to the reader's expectations and subverting familiar tropes in the service of nuanced storytelling. Fair Play is a thoroughly satisfying and thought-provoking read . . . Louise Hegarty's debut novel is a clever approach to the drawing-room mystery, satirical and thought-provoking." - Shelf Awareness

"A clever tale of two halves that turns crime genre on its head." - Irish Independent

"Fair Play acts as both witty deconstruction of a genre and portrait of unbearable grief and loss." - Financial Times

"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

"Living in Ireland, we get used to great books being produced by debut authors. But every now and then a debut comes along that stands out from the pack. This year that book is Fair Play, the first novel by Cork author Louise Hegarty." - Irish Examiner

"On the mystery side, Fair Play by Louise Hegarty is f-- amazing . . . . It's a really modern, interesting, bizarre take on the murder mystery . . . . It's brilliant." - Los Angeles Times Book Club Newsletter

"The surreal gamesmanship [Hegarty] springs forward with her construction of Fair Play is unlike anything I have encountered in mystery fiction, mixing elements of both meta and the bizarre in a story that was never really about a murder. Instead, it is one of the most brilliant looks at life and death that I have ever read." - Book Reporter

"An ingenious puzzle-box of a novel, where nothing is solved but everything is discovered. Louise Hegarty plays--often hilariously, always knowingly--with the forms and conventions of detective fiction, constantly pulling the rug from under the reader in a manner that echoes, heart-wrenchingly, the rug-pull at the heart of it all. 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

"A current of electricity runs through every Louise Hegarty character, concept and sentence; 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

"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

"I loved it. Catastrophic grief explored through a meta murder mystery romp? Yes please! I found Fair Play intriguing, smart, fun, and devastatingly poignant, and I shall now read everything Louise Hegarty ever writes." - Effie Black, author of In Defence of The Act

"A smart, intricately plotted novel." - iNews