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Fair Play
This is a murder mystery.
This is a story about love.
Or is it?...
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.
This is a story about love.
Or is it?...
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.
284 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 20, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 974 reviews
January 19, 2025
2.5 stars. I think we need to call a moratorium on Meta Murder Mysteries. This one, in many ways, is more successful than the others I've read in the last few years. But even if it is not a terrible concept, in the end it is just gimmick and not much else. Sometimes a concept is not enough to sustain a whole novel without delivering something deeper to the reader.
On the plus side, this has a strong beginning, introduces us to the characters well, and is striving for something more human than the snark that, for some of the others in this subgenre, is all the have to offer. Hegarty knows her golden age mysteries well, and while she's playing with the ever popular locked room here, she is clearly writing for a modern audience. The theories and possible devices involved are much more simple and straightforward than you'd see in an actual golden age story. (This is not such a bad thing, they were honestly exhausting.) The locked room story, and many other golden age stories, are often questions of suicide or murder as this one is, so the device makes sense.
It could have ended up as a 3 star for me, but the last third of the novel, when we have fully realized what Hegarty is doing and the point she wants to make, the device actually works against that point. It becomes dull repetition rather than a real emotional reckoning. I think there could be a good book in here, but it would need to either take the device somewhere new that is more in service of the story or abandon it entirely. I did not have much good will left by the time it was over.
On the plus side, this has a strong beginning, introduces us to the characters well, and is striving for something more human than the snark that, for some of the others in this subgenre, is all the have to offer. Hegarty knows her golden age mysteries well, and while she's playing with the ever popular locked room here, she is clearly writing for a modern audience. The theories and possible devices involved are much more simple and straightforward than you'd see in an actual golden age story. (This is not such a bad thing, they were honestly exhausting.) The locked room story, and many other golden age stories, are often questions of suicide or murder as this one is, so the device makes sense.
It could have ended up as a 3 star for me, but the last third of the novel, when we have fully realized what Hegarty is doing and the point she wants to make, the device actually works against that point. It becomes dull repetition rather than a real emotional reckoning. I think there could be a good book in here, but it would need to either take the device somewhere new that is more in service of the story or abandon it entirely. I did not have much good will left by the time it was over.
April 6, 2025
Harsh review incoming...Honestly, this was so bad I was genuinely mad about it at the end. Reading other critical reviews it seems there's some various tropes and devices at play here that maybe I'm completely missing the point of. I can admit when my knowledge is limited, fair enough. But at the end of the day this book gives absolutely nothing and is so boring. I genuinely could not parse out what the author was trying to do. It's confusing, the characters are dry and flat, we never learn much of anything about them and their personalities are such caricatures. The writing style was weird and unfamiliar to me, like breaking the third wall, with the detective saying things like "In Chapter 23 I will notice x" etc. It just wasn't working alongside everything else that was already muddled (like the timelines?). It felt like there were so many plot holes in the mystery itself, I was just so peeved through the entire thing, but nothing like when I got to the final third and realized what the author was doing. Fummminnngg. I mean, like I said maybe I just missed some grand point, and if I did, please someone enlighten me and maybe I can bump this up to 2 stars.
Thanks to the publisher for my ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to the publisher for my ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.
September 7, 2024
You might be lucky enough to receive an invitation to a Murder Mystery Night this New Years Eve of 2022 which also celebrates Benjamin’s birthday. Or maybe it’s unlucky, you decide! It’s meticulously well organised by Benjamin’s sister Abigail, dress code is jazz age. Perfect. Where’s the location? That’ll be Yew Tree House, a lovingly restored Palladian not quite mansion but it’s more than enough for the eight guests including the siblings. They’re a diverse group, mainly old friends, all united in their irritation of Declan, other than that all seems convivial. Once the champagne is flowing and the canapés circling, the Murder Mystery games will begin in more ways than one. Who is the victim and who the murderer? Auguste Bell is our esteemed consulting detective who will obviously rapidly solve the case. He’s a combination of Poirot. Holmes and Inspector French (1920’s - 50’s, author Freeman Wills Croft) and Sacker is his Watson.
If you are expecting something run of the mill locked room mystery wise, then think again! In Part 1 the scene is well set with an atmosphere that fits the NYE high spirits but with an occasional moment of chill and tension. That’ll be you Declan. Part II is very witty and clever following (or breaking) the Golden Age Rules such as Van Dines of 1928 and Knox of 1929 and thus it’s in the best spirit of the golden age but funnier. I smile at some of the nods and chuckle at others with the author affectionately sending up situations. There are plenty of references to cozy crime Queen Aggie but you definitely need to pay attention to the clues and watch out for those red herrings and blond alleys. I really enjoy how the author chooses to tell the tale although it takes me a little while to catch on! The characterisation is good as all can be visualised with ease and the Irish setting is excellent.
I am thoroughly entertained by this novel although it does get a bit drawn out towards the end but it is very Poirot like in it’s execution and so makes me smile. The end is a bit enigmatic but I like it.
Overall, this is a clever book and an excellent debut novel. It’s skilfully written with tongue in cheek. It’s different from other books out there at the moment and so will appeal to those looking for something out of the ordinary.
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Pan Macmillan for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.
If you are expecting something run of the mill locked room mystery wise, then think again! In Part 1 the scene is well set with an atmosphere that fits the NYE high spirits but with an occasional moment of chill and tension. That’ll be you Declan. Part II is very witty and clever following (or breaking) the Golden Age Rules such as Van Dines of 1928 and Knox of 1929 and thus it’s in the best spirit of the golden age but funnier. I smile at some of the nods and chuckle at others with the author affectionately sending up situations. There are plenty of references to cozy crime Queen Aggie but you definitely need to pay attention to the clues and watch out for those red herrings and blond alleys. I really enjoy how the author chooses to tell the tale although it takes me a little while to catch on! The characterisation is good as all can be visualised with ease and the Irish setting is excellent.
I am thoroughly entertained by this novel although it does get a bit drawn out towards the end but it is very Poirot like in it’s execution and so makes me smile. The end is a bit enigmatic but I like it.
Overall, this is a clever book and an excellent debut novel. It’s skilfully written with tongue in cheek. It’s different from other books out there at the moment and so will appeal to those looking for something out of the ordinary.
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Pan Macmillan for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.
May 7, 2025
This book pissed me off. By reading the description, you would think this is an Agatha Christie style whodunit with a modern twist. Well, it's certainly not that. It starts off setting the scene and the characters, but after the "murder" happens suddenly everything changes. This becomes a book within a book (the Poirot ripoff detective literally says things like, "in chapter 22 we will conduct an experiment"). This book is not about solving a crime at all. It's about a woman's grief after losing her brother... That's all fine and dandy, but it's not what the reader has been promised. Also, maybe I would have accepted that the story is not actually a whodunit if it were written well. Unfortunately the author endlessly repeats herself and forced me (and I'm sure many others) to skim whole sections of the book in which she rewrites passages that appeared mere pages before.
So beware before starting this book. It is not what you think it is (and not in a good way)! Absolutely dreadful.
So beware before starting this book. It is not what you think it is (and not in a good way)! Absolutely dreadful.
September 5, 2025
Some novels simply defy categorization and Fair Play is one of them.
Mystery? Sure. There is a body, a quirky detective and his sidekick, suspects and red herrings- all the staples of the mystery novel genre, but what if I tell you that in reality this novel is about grief and processing it?
Let me explain:
First clue that this is something different is the entirety of Part One where we are introduced to characters and the event story revolves around- Benjamin's birthday/New Year celebration. Abigail, his sister is the organizer of the event and just like every year before, the theme of the party is a murder mystery where all of the invitees have role and try to solve the murder. But the morning after the party, Benjamin is dead. You see, the entire Part One is written in a dreaded omniscient point of view which, I guess, was bit of a writing experiment, but I'd say it's primary purpose is to set a stage.
Part Two opens with the arrival of famous detective Auguste Bell who is invited by Abigail to come and solve the mystery of how Benjamin died and who is responsible. Intersected with chapters of Bell's investigation are chapters of Abigail's life in the aftermath of Benjamin's death.
Simply put, the part with the detective is a satire of the Golden Age mystery genre and locked room genre in particular.
Established and made popular by John Dickinson Carr, locked room genre was always the type of mystery more preoccupied with "how the murder was committed" than "who is the culprit." How did the murder happen when the door are locked from the inside in a windowless room? And the ingenuity of the genre is in the most inventive and insane ways authors come up with to explain the impossible murder, and yes, things can get ridiculous. So, in this novel detective Bell is a blended version of Gideon Fell and Poirot as he investigates the murder of Benjamin and we have no idea how we even came to the part where it is a murder at all or why the suspects/witnesses just go with his instruction not to leave the house until he comes to a conclusion nor how police inspector just shows up at the house to inform Bell of something important. Bell often breaks the fourth wall reminding reader of the observation he made in chapter 17 or of the fact that his sidekick has to be slightly less intelligent than the average reader, something his sidekick Sacker would get offended by if he didn't lack intelligence to realize. :)
The purpose of this is two-fold, as I think Hegarty had a blast poking fun at the genre she is clearly familiar with and likes. But the way I understood this is that entire detective part was just Abigail's way to deal with the death of her brother. We are told from the beginning that she is very close to her brother and she loves him a lot because he is the only family she's left. She loves organizing birthdays for him and she tries to out-do herself every year by coming up with more elaborate mysteries for guests to solve. She reads about it and researches all the rules of locked room mysteries be it T. S. Eliot’s rules in ‘Homage to Wilkie Collins' or S. S. Van Dine’s 'Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories' which are all real resources. There is a certain comfort in following rules and I think that Abigail deals with initial shock of her brother's death in her head by putting it into familiar frame of locked-room mystery and its well-known trajectory with rules. This is why the detective part of the story is more than often nonsensical and disjointed from things like condolences notes and Abigail's return to work scenes. Just take the part with multiple endings: the notion is that in the locked room mystery everyone can be made culprit if the detective presents it and he explains the motive and the modus operandi, but in real life people often have a jerk reaction to blame it on someone or something to understand why until, in time, they come to realization that it doesn't really matter because the person you love is not here. This is the process Abigail goes through as she tries to deal with her brother's death.
I love when authors decide to do something risky for their debut novel, no matter how successful it ends up being. This novel is a writing experiment and I loved the intention behind it if not really the execution. I almost quit as I was reading Part One because omniscient view is tricky to pull and I was not a fan. Satire was also a bit too on the nose sometimes and in my opinion, it got in the way of the real message.
All in all, this was interesting.
By broadest definition, mystery is "something that's impossible or hard to understand or explain" and in that sense this novel deals with that. What is harder to understand and explain than the sudden death of beloved person in your life?
I would like to thank Netgalley, Pan Macmillan/Picador and Louise Hegarty for an advanced copy of Fair Play. All opinions are my own.
Mystery? Sure. There is a body, a quirky detective and his sidekick, suspects and red herrings- all the staples of the mystery novel genre, but what if I tell you that in reality this novel is about grief and processing it?
Let me explain:
First clue that this is something different is the entirety of Part One where we are introduced to characters and the event story revolves around- Benjamin's birthday/New Year celebration. Abigail, his sister is the organizer of the event and just like every year before, the theme of the party is a murder mystery where all of the invitees have role and try to solve the murder. But the morning after the party, Benjamin is dead. You see, the entire Part One is written in a dreaded omniscient point of view which, I guess, was bit of a writing experiment, but I'd say it's primary purpose is to set a stage.
Part Two opens with the arrival of famous detective Auguste Bell who is invited by Abigail to come and solve the mystery of how Benjamin died and who is responsible. Intersected with chapters of Bell's investigation are chapters of Abigail's life in the aftermath of Benjamin's death.
Simply put, the part with the detective is a satire of the Golden Age mystery genre and locked room genre in particular.
"To the average observer, it may have seemed as though Auguste Bell did nothing more than walk from the motorcar to the front door of the house. But anyone who knew the detective would tell you that he had already made half a dozen observations on that short journey."
Established and made popular by John Dickinson Carr, locked room genre was always the type of mystery more preoccupied with "how the murder was committed" than "who is the culprit." How did the murder happen when the door are locked from the inside in a windowless room? And the ingenuity of the genre is in the most inventive and insane ways authors come up with to explain the impossible murder, and yes, things can get ridiculous. So, in this novel detective Bell is a blended version of Gideon Fell and Poirot as he investigates the murder of Benjamin and we have no idea how we even came to the part where it is a murder at all or why the suspects/witnesses just go with his instruction not to leave the house until he comes to a conclusion nor how police inspector just shows up at the house to inform Bell of something important. Bell often breaks the fourth wall reminding reader of the observation he made in chapter 17 or of the fact that his sidekick has to be slightly less intelligent than the average reader, something his sidekick Sacker would get offended by if he didn't lack intelligence to realize. :)
The purpose of this is two-fold, as I think Hegarty had a blast poking fun at the genre she is clearly familiar with and likes. But the way I understood this is that entire detective part was just Abigail's way to deal with the death of her brother. We are told from the beginning that she is very close to her brother and she loves him a lot because he is the only family she's left. She loves organizing birthdays for him and she tries to out-do herself every year by coming up with more elaborate mysteries for guests to solve. She reads about it and researches all the rules of locked room mysteries be it T. S. Eliot’s rules in ‘Homage to Wilkie Collins' or S. S. Van Dine’s 'Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories' which are all real resources. There is a certain comfort in following rules and I think that Abigail deals with initial shock of her brother's death in her head by putting it into familiar frame of locked-room mystery and its well-known trajectory with rules. This is why the detective part of the story is more than often nonsensical and disjointed from things like condolences notes and Abigail's return to work scenes. Just take the part with multiple endings: the notion is that in the locked room mystery everyone can be made culprit if the detective presents it and he explains the motive and the modus operandi, but in real life people often have a jerk reaction to blame it on someone or something to understand why until, in time, they come to realization that it doesn't really matter because the person you love is not here. This is the process Abigail goes through as she tries to deal with her brother's death.
I love when authors decide to do something risky for their debut novel, no matter how successful it ends up being. This novel is a writing experiment and I loved the intention behind it if not really the execution. I almost quit as I was reading Part One because omniscient view is tricky to pull and I was not a fan. Satire was also a bit too on the nose sometimes and in my opinion, it got in the way of the real message.
All in all, this was interesting.
By broadest definition, mystery is "something that's impossible or hard to understand or explain" and in that sense this novel deals with that. What is harder to understand and explain than the sudden death of beloved person in your life?
I would like to thank Netgalley, Pan Macmillan/Picador and Louise Hegarty for an advanced copy of Fair Play. All opinions are my own.
April 5, 2025
It’s been a while since I read a book in a day, but Fair Play, Louise Hegarty’s debut novel, ended up being a hard one to put down, and my sunny front garden bench proved a perfect reading spot today.
Fair Play isn’t a book that everyone is going to love - it’s genre-defying and it might feel unsatisfying for some - but it’s clever and inventive and ultimately really quite moving. It left me feeling bereft.
For most of the book this was a rather fun read - it’s Cluedo meets Agatha Christie, an homage to detective novels of the 19th Century with a splash of David Lynch surrealism, but then it pivots rather unexpectedly, shocking the reader into the realisation of what is actually going on.
The book opens with Abigail planning her brother Benjamin’s birthday party, a murder mystery party on New Year’s Eve in a rental Airbnb where Benjamin ends up dead, before shifting to their permanent residence, complete with butler, maid and gardener, and visiting detective Auguste Bell determined to uncover Benjamin’s murderer.
If you like clever, playful and experimental literary fiction m, I think Fair Play will be one you’ll enjoy.
Lots of readers have complained in reviews about the final vignette, the beach scene. I found it poignant and illuminating. Overall I don’t know if I completely loved the book but I admired and will certainly remember it and it left me stewing. 4/5⭐️
*Fair Play was published on Thursday 3 April 2025. Many thanks to Cormac Kinsella and Picador Books for the #gifted advance proof.
Fair Play isn’t a book that everyone is going to love - it’s genre-defying and it might feel unsatisfying for some - but it’s clever and inventive and ultimately really quite moving. It left me feeling bereft.
For most of the book this was a rather fun read - it’s Cluedo meets Agatha Christie, an homage to detective novels of the 19th Century with a splash of David Lynch surrealism, but then it pivots rather unexpectedly, shocking the reader into the realisation of what is actually going on.
The book opens with Abigail planning her brother Benjamin’s birthday party, a murder mystery party on New Year’s Eve in a rental Airbnb where Benjamin ends up dead, before shifting to their permanent residence, complete with butler, maid and gardener, and visiting detective Auguste Bell determined to uncover Benjamin’s murderer.
If you like clever, playful and experimental literary fiction m, I think Fair Play will be one you’ll enjoy.
Lots of readers have complained in reviews about the final vignette, the beach scene. I found it poignant and illuminating. Overall I don’t know if I completely loved the book but I admired and will certainly remember it and it left me stewing. 4/5⭐️
*Fair Play was published on Thursday 3 April 2025. Many thanks to Cormac Kinsella and Picador Books for the #gifted advance proof.
August 15, 2025
This is a really fun concept that didn't quite work out in execution unfortunately.
Following in the footsteps of Benjamin Stevenson's 'Ernest Cunningham' series, this is a meta murder mystery that plays with the reader as it builds layers of intrigue through its structural quirkiness.
At its heart lies a solid locked room mystery that is upended with style changes that turns it into a golden age story within a detective story. As readers we're invited to decipher the clues along the way by breaking the fourth wall to tease us about the possibilities for the solution.
I will admit I ended up a little confused and felt dissatisfied by the ending probably becuase i skim read and missed the main points. I wanted a denouement that provides closure, not the case here as it's not the true point of the book.
I also struggled with the characters. We only get a glimpse of them in the first part of the book and their characterisation is never built out enough to become fully invested.
Overall it's a pretty unique story structure with classic tropes but just missed the mark as a whole for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for a digital review copy of "Fair Play" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.
Following in the footsteps of Benjamin Stevenson's 'Ernest Cunningham' series, this is a meta murder mystery that plays with the reader as it builds layers of intrigue through its structural quirkiness.
At its heart lies a solid locked room mystery that is upended with style changes that turns it into a golden age story within a detective story. As readers we're invited to decipher the clues along the way by breaking the fourth wall to tease us about the possibilities for the solution.
I will admit I ended up a little confused and felt dissatisfied by the ending probably becuase i skim read and missed the main points. I wanted a denouement that provides closure, not the case here as it's not the true point of the book.
I also struggled with the characters. We only get a glimpse of them in the first part of the book and their characterisation is never built out enough to become fully invested.
Overall it's a pretty unique story structure with classic tropes but just missed the mark as a whole for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for a digital review copy of "Fair Play" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.
June 15, 2025
This is such a clever book. If I'm being totally honest, I'm not sure I grasped it entirely but it was refreshing to read something so inventive and different.
The action begins in a large country house, where Abigail has arranged a murder mystery party for her friends. There is her brother Benjamin and his best friend Stephen, whom she has always had a crush on. Also in attendance are newly engaged couple Cormac and Olivia, along with Benjamin's former fiancé Margaret. Completing the group are gambling addict Declan and somewhat surprisingly, Benjamin's work colleague Barbara. Abigail, a huge fan of crime fiction, takes great pleasure in organising the murder mystery, assigning roles to everyone and planting clues around the house. The party is a success and everybody retires for the night. However, the next morning, one of the group is found dead inside a locked bedroom.
This is where things get really interesting. The plot splits into two parallel storylines: one where Abigail hires the esteemed detective Auguste Bell to solve the murder, and another where she is mired in grief after the death of a loved one, struggling to cope.
The Bell plotline is told in a playful manner and if you know your murder mysteries, you will enjoy deciphering the clues and spotting all the references to famous detective stories of yore. It's all very meta, for example Bell spies the balcony of the deceased's bedroom and explains that Declan will help him examine it by climbing the outside wall "in Chapter Twenty-Three." Meanwhile Abigail's account is heartbreaking, unable to return to normal life following the death of someone she cared so deeply about.
The two storylines are very different in tone but they contain one major similarity: both Bell and Abigail are wracking their brains to figure why this person died. Belle is consumed by examining the motives of the suspects, while Abigail is tormenting herself, wondering if there is any way she could have prevented it. The final chapter provides a fascinating coda with some elusive connections to the events that have been recounted beforehand.
I only wish I was more of an aficionado of detective fiction, then I could have enjoyed this novel more fully. But it is a joy to read something so innovative and truly original. Fair Play is an auspicious debut from Louise Hegarty - I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.
The action begins in a large country house, where Abigail has arranged a murder mystery party for her friends. There is her brother Benjamin and his best friend Stephen, whom she has always had a crush on. Also in attendance are newly engaged couple Cormac and Olivia, along with Benjamin's former fiancé Margaret. Completing the group are gambling addict Declan and somewhat surprisingly, Benjamin's work colleague Barbara. Abigail, a huge fan of crime fiction, takes great pleasure in organising the murder mystery, assigning roles to everyone and planting clues around the house. The party is a success and everybody retires for the night. However, the next morning, one of the group is found dead inside a locked bedroom.
This is where things get really interesting. The plot splits into two parallel storylines: one where Abigail hires the esteemed detective Auguste Bell to solve the murder, and another where she is mired in grief after the death of a loved one, struggling to cope.
The Bell plotline is told in a playful manner and if you know your murder mysteries, you will enjoy deciphering the clues and spotting all the references to famous detective stories of yore. It's all very meta, for example Bell spies the balcony of the deceased's bedroom and explains that Declan will help him examine it by climbing the outside wall "in Chapter Twenty-Three." Meanwhile Abigail's account is heartbreaking, unable to return to normal life following the death of someone she cared so deeply about.
The two storylines are very different in tone but they contain one major similarity: both Bell and Abigail are wracking their brains to figure why this person died. Belle is consumed by examining the motives of the suspects, while Abigail is tormenting herself, wondering if there is any way she could have prevented it. The final chapter provides a fascinating coda with some elusive connections to the events that have been recounted beforehand.
I only wish I was more of an aficionado of detective fiction, then I could have enjoyed this novel more fully. But it is a joy to read something so innovative and truly original. Fair Play is an auspicious debut from Louise Hegarty - I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.
May 4, 2025
1.25 Stars.
I might have given this two stars, if not for the final chapter, which made me so irrationally angry that I wanted to throw the book across the room — what was that? This book pulled me in with a stunning, eye-catching cover and the promise of a decent locked-room mystery, which the first part seemed to deliver. However, all of this descended into gimmickry soon enough. I know Hegarty was trying to do something clever here, but it did not work on so many levels! Don't even get me started on the fact that, in the end, we get neither What was the point of this book, I ask you?
I might have given this two stars, if not for the final chapter, which made me so irrationally angry that I wanted to throw the book across the room — what was that? This book pulled me in with a stunning, eye-catching cover and the promise of a decent locked-room mystery, which the first part seemed to deliver. However, all of this descended into gimmickry soon enough. I know Hegarty was trying to do something clever here, but it did not work on so many levels! Don't even get me started on the fact that, in the end, we get neither What was the point of this book, I ask you?
October 9, 2025
Well what on earth was the point of that?
No, I'm serious. Other than an exercise in writing a "different" type of murder mystery and one in which you find yourself not entirely sure that there even was one by the final page. And speaking of the final pages - why were they even there?
Yes, I am dissatisfied with this novel and Ive read a few of these so-called experimental murder mysteries. This has to be the most ridiculous.
We start with a group of friends who meet at an Air BnB for a New Year's Eve/birthday party. The murder mystery part goes off in a very dull manner with Abigail (the organiser) more or less handing the participants the answer on a plate. The party carries on for a while, everyone goes to bed but (insert your own dramatic music) when they get up in the morning Benjamin (birthday boy/Abigail's brother) is found dead in bed in a locked room.
Great, you think, a classic locked room mystery but oh no, God forbid we'd have something so prosaic these days (despite the fact that a well written one is a joy). No, instead we seem to be transported back around 50 years, a "famous" detective and his idiot sidekick appear from nowhere, theres an awful lot of "clever" asides with the detective quoting chapters of the book we're reading and then there's an invitation to the reader to solve the mystery.
However we are not then treated to the actual solution. Instead we get umpteen different endings giving every participant an equal chance of having committed the murder.
Interspersed are passages which follow Abigail in modern times trying to make sense of her brother's apparent suicide. None of these hang together or make particular sense, especially the trip to the beach which finishes the beach.
On the whole I'd be quite happy to never read anything this ridiculous ever again. There's clever and "different" and then there's trying too hard to do something modern and reinvent something that needs no reinvention.
No, I'm serious. Other than an exercise in writing a "different" type of murder mystery and one in which you find yourself not entirely sure that there even was one by the final page. And speaking of the final pages - why were they even there?
Yes, I am dissatisfied with this novel and Ive read a few of these so-called experimental murder mysteries. This has to be the most ridiculous.
We start with a group of friends who meet at an Air BnB for a New Year's Eve/birthday party. The murder mystery part goes off in a very dull manner with Abigail (the organiser) more or less handing the participants the answer on a plate. The party carries on for a while, everyone goes to bed but (insert your own dramatic music) when they get up in the morning Benjamin (birthday boy/Abigail's brother) is found dead in bed in a locked room.
Great, you think, a classic locked room mystery but oh no, God forbid we'd have something so prosaic these days (despite the fact that a well written one is a joy). No, instead we seem to be transported back around 50 years, a "famous" detective and his idiot sidekick appear from nowhere, theres an awful lot of "clever" asides with the detective quoting chapters of the book we're reading and then there's an invitation to the reader to solve the mystery.
However we are not then treated to the actual solution. Instead we get umpteen different endings giving every participant an equal chance of having committed the murder.
Interspersed are passages which follow Abigail in modern times trying to make sense of her brother's apparent suicide. None of these hang together or make particular sense, especially the trip to the beach which finishes the beach.
On the whole I'd be quite happy to never read anything this ridiculous ever again. There's clever and "different" and then there's trying too hard to do something modern and reinvent something that needs no reinvention.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 15, 2025
This was such a unique play on the classic detective murder mystery novel. I was all in right away, and then the more I read, the more confused I got, but then the even more I read, I began to understand why everything was the way it was.
Spoilers are about to come, so please just turn away if you don't want to know, and I recommend reading the book before reading these spoilers, because it'll ruin the fun.
This story went in between the murder investigation and the future where Abigail is dealing with the loss of her brother. It felt a little weird at first, but soon, it became obvious what was going on.
We got a bunch of rules to murder mystery novels and why certain people couldn't have been the killers and why it couldn't be an accident, etc. But after clues were revealed in the future sections, you realize that it was indeed a suicide, and the murder investigation is a way for Abigail to cope with the feelings she's having about it all. She has a lot of guilt, sadness, numbness, anger, etc., and she tries to find answers everywhere she goes. She tries to find an explanation, but she just can't. And so she creates this story in her head based on what is probably a popular detective from a book series in the world of the novel to try and find every possible solution that isn't suicide. But unfortunately, it turns out that it really was. And that there isn't any reason for it.
It's a very poignant exploration of grief, and I truly loved the journey I went on. I was trying to solve the mystery the whole time, and when I realized it wouldn't be an actual murder, I felt vindicated!
I will say, the reason I gave it a 4 and not a 5 was because of part 3. I truly just didn't understand it. But maybe it was to show us that Abigail can now think fondly of Benjamin instead of just ruminating on the sadness of it all. Regardless, it still wasn't super duper clear, but I still loved the book.
*I won this in a Goodreads Giveaway.*
Spoilers are about to come, so please just turn away if you don't want to know, and I recommend reading the book before reading these spoilers, because it'll ruin the fun.
This story went in between the murder investigation and the future where Abigail is dealing with the loss of her brother. It felt a little weird at first, but soon, it became obvious what was going on.
We got a bunch of rules to murder mystery novels and why certain people couldn't have been the killers and why it couldn't be an accident, etc. But after clues were revealed in the future sections, you realize that it was indeed a suicide, and the murder investigation is a way for Abigail to cope with the feelings she's having about it all. She has a lot of guilt, sadness, numbness, anger, etc., and she tries to find answers everywhere she goes. She tries to find an explanation, but she just can't. And so she creates this story in her head based on what is probably a popular detective from a book series in the world of the novel to try and find every possible solution that isn't suicide. But unfortunately, it turns out that it really was. And that there isn't any reason for it.
It's a very poignant exploration of grief, and I truly loved the journey I went on. I was trying to solve the mystery the whole time, and when I realized it wouldn't be an actual murder, I felt vindicated!
I will say, the reason I gave it a 4 and not a 5 was because of part 3. I truly just didn't understand it. But maybe it was to show us that Abigail can now think fondly of Benjamin instead of just ruminating on the sadness of it all. Regardless, it still wasn't super duper clear, but I still loved the book.
*I won this in a Goodreads Giveaway.*
May 28, 2025
First thing, this is not actually a mystery genre novel. Not even a very meta one (it includes all of 3 lists for golden age detective novel rules and tons of Agatha Christie references). This is important, if you read it (like I did) expecting some kind of mystery or that it follows any of the rules for golden age mystery novels, it really does not. It's not even a slight bend of those rules, like, say, Tana French does occasionally, it's instead a total break of expectations.
This book is (in my humble opinion and all that) literary fiction, an experimental examination of grief using mystery novel tropes as a metaphor kind of, using lots of repetition and twisting expectations, . It is ambitious in that way, that I am being cryptic about because it is more interesting read without spoilers. It was interesting to me and I am not sorry I read it (and finished it), but the problem is, it is not that good at that different thing it tries to achieve. Just because it is experimental and it is an interesting idea, it does not mean that experiment is well executed.
The pacing is off (I get the sense of the repetition, yes, but it is too much), the ending too open (I do not need a genre-rules ending, but the epilogue is too long and vague and gives no resolution to what happens after for Abigail...), the characterization too dry and cold for all of the first part. Incidentally, in that first part, the author does something that I absolutely hate: she is writing from the PoV of Abigail, quite close, but when other characters are introduced, we get, within the same text and formatting, some paragraphs from the PoV of other characters, maybe to try to define them better for the reader. I hate that—stick to one point of view in the same scene. And it did not even work to make me care much about them.
I can see why this would be unpopular for people expecting a mystery to solve, but I can overlook that (ah, novelties, I like novelties and to be surprised); it's just that it is not that good at the other things it is really trying to do.
This book is (in my humble opinion and all that) literary fiction, an experimental examination of grief using mystery novel tropes as a metaphor kind of, using lots of repetition and twisting expectations, . It is ambitious in that way, that I am being cryptic about because it is more interesting read without spoilers. It was interesting to me and I am not sorry I read it (and finished it), but the problem is, it is not that good at that different thing it tries to achieve. Just because it is experimental and it is an interesting idea, it does not mean that experiment is well executed.
The pacing is off (I get the sense of the repetition, yes, but it is too much), the ending too open (I do not need a genre-rules ending, but the epilogue is too long and vague and gives no resolution to what happens after for Abigail...), the characterization too dry and cold for all of the first part. Incidentally, in that first part, the author does something that I absolutely hate: she is writing from the PoV of Abigail, quite close, but when other characters are introduced, we get, within the same text and formatting, some paragraphs from the PoV of other characters, maybe to try to define them better for the reader. I hate that—stick to one point of view in the same scene. And it did not even work to make me care much about them.
I can see why this would be unpopular for people expecting a mystery to solve, but I can overlook that (ah, novelties, I like novelties and to be surprised); it's just that it is not that good at the other things it is really trying to do.
September 24, 2024
It's been a while since I actively disliked a book this much. First of all, the first chapter reads like a shopping list, or maybe someone giving a statement just recapping actions without getting emotional about it. It was dry, just listing out things, boring, no insight or depth. But I persevered because I wanted to at least get to the "murder mystery dinner" part. I thought, maybe when the conversation starts flowing, it will get better.
🤨🤨🤨
It did not. Part 1 remained dry and boring and almost pointless as we did not really get to be part of the murder mystery dinner. We meet our characters, but we don't really get to know them.
Part 2 is where it gets really confusing, but maybe the formatting has a lot to answer for here. And mind you, I read it as an ARC, so I hope that by the time this hits the shelves, it will be formatted in a way that makes more sense.
Because of this weird formatting, some paragraphs were inserted in the middle of a different paragraph, words in the middle of the page, and it was generally distracting for the flow of the story. It took me a while to realise that there are two stories running parallel to each other.
Even then, there is no real depth to any of the characters. I did not care for Abigail AT ALL. I couldn't care less how she dealt with her grief and how she went on with her life after losing Benjamin. She didn't impress me as a hostess, she didn't impress me as a friend or sister. I just felt nothing.
What pissed me off the most, is the ending. What even was the Part 3?!?!
🤨🤨🤨
It did not. Part 1 remained dry and boring and almost pointless as we did not really get to be part of the murder mystery dinner. We meet our characters, but we don't really get to know them.
Part 2 is where it gets really confusing, but maybe the formatting has a lot to answer for here. And mind you, I read it as an ARC, so I hope that by the time this hits the shelves, it will be formatted in a way that makes more sense.
Because of this weird formatting, some paragraphs were inserted in the middle of a different paragraph, words in the middle of the page, and it was generally distracting for the flow of the story. It took me a while to realise that there are two stories running parallel to each other.
Even then, there is no real depth to any of the characters. I did not care for Abigail AT ALL. I couldn't care less how she dealt with her grief and how she went on with her life after losing Benjamin. She didn't impress me as a hostess, she didn't impress me as a friend or sister. I just felt nothing.
What pissed me off the most, is the ending. What even was the Part 3?!?!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 10, 2025
What a weird book.
This story began as an old-fashioned murder mystery. Abigail had invited some friends over to celebrate her brother Benjamin's birthday. But the next morning he is dead. So one of them must be the murderer. She hires a detective to solve the problem. After that the book gets really confusing.
I think I did not understand the book. There are at least two different stories going on without any explanation as to why or what they are about. The detective breaks the third wall, well sort of, and says things like something will happen in chapter sixteen and he refers to his older cases by names that sound like book titles. It is very strange and very boring at the same time. Nothing happens because it is all very repetitive. It took me a while to realise that there were several stories being told, and I got confused when I noticed the discrepancies. For example, Abigail invites the friends to an Airbnb to celebrate, but suddenly it is her family's house, complete with servants. It was so confusing and disturbing.
It took me two weeks to read the book and it was a real struggle. I read the term "Meta Murder Mystery" in other reviews. I have never heard of this genre and obviously it is not for me. Unfortunately, I have nothing good to say about this book. It's boring, confusing, the characters are flat and the ending... I don't know what it was. Maybe I just didn't get it.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This story began as an old-fashioned murder mystery. Abigail had invited some friends over to celebrate her brother Benjamin's birthday. But the next morning he is dead. So one of them must be the murderer. She hires a detective to solve the problem. After that the book gets really confusing.
I think I did not understand the book. There are at least two different stories going on without any explanation as to why or what they are about. The detective breaks the third wall, well sort of, and says things like something will happen in chapter sixteen and he refers to his older cases by names that sound like book titles. It is very strange and very boring at the same time. Nothing happens because it is all very repetitive. It took me a while to realise that there were several stories being told, and I got confused when I noticed the discrepancies. For example, Abigail invites the friends to an Airbnb to celebrate, but suddenly it is her family's house, complete with servants. It was so confusing and disturbing.
It took me two weeks to read the book and it was a real struggle. I read the term "Meta Murder Mystery" in other reviews. I have never heard of this genre and obviously it is not for me. Unfortunately, I have nothing good to say about this book. It's boring, confusing, the characters are flat and the ending... I don't know what it was. Maybe I just didn't get it.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
May 29, 2025
Louise, sometimes it’s okay for a murder mystery to just be about murder and not have some deeper meaning. I don’t pick up an Agatha Christie expecting Poirot to solve climate change. Let’s keep it simple.
December 14, 2025
2.5 stars. i LOVE meta books but i don't think this one had enough commitment to the bit to be anything great. i get what it was trying to do, but for me it didn't work, unfortunately
September 26, 2024
Let's chat about "Fair Play" by Louise Hegarty. This book, from another amazing Irish author, will be available to buy on the 3rd of April 2025 and let me tell you - put your pre-order ASAP and in a proper paperback or hardback - you can thank me later.
At the beginning I was expecting just an old plain murder mystery, another version of whodunit but I was so so wrong.
There is a birthday party on New Year's Eve with traditional murder mystery game but when everyone wake up next morning it appears that someone is dead... There will be police officer, detective with his side kick and a lot of drama but let this not fool you.. This exceptional work is an excellent description of grief and ones way of dealing with it. It's a story of love, loyalty, mistakes and regrets. I can't imagine bravery of the author when she was approaching publishers as I don't think I've ever read anything even slightly similar to it and yet so compelling. Masterpiece in its form
Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to read an early copy of #FairPlay
At the beginning I was expecting just an old plain murder mystery, another version of whodunit but I was so so wrong.
There is a birthday party on New Year's Eve with traditional murder mystery game but when everyone wake up next morning it appears that someone is dead... There will be police officer, detective with his side kick and a lot of drama but let this not fool you.. This exceptional work is an excellent description of grief and ones way of dealing with it. It's a story of love, loyalty, mistakes and regrets. I can't imagine bravery of the author when she was approaching publishers as I don't think I've ever read anything even slightly similar to it and yet so compelling. Masterpiece in its form
Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to read an early copy of #FairPlay
January 7, 2025
There seem to be a fair few negative reviews of this book, which in a sense don't surprise me - it's all about opinions after all.
The book is often described as being confusing, repetitive and with a really poor ending. Although I enjoyed the book, I do see where its critics are coming from so would caution anyone going in to read this novel, that it is not your typical locked-door whodunnit.
The book is set out that way, in a manner which many recent mystery novels are set. A single location, a dead body and a list of suspects - one of whom must be the murderer. However, this book (for me) is almost a comical look at these types of novels with its tongue firmly in its cheek, almost like an homage to murder mystery novels of the past.
This will definitely not be for everyone, I will say that. The ending may annoy you.
But if you go into it with eyes open, mind open and few expectations, you will enjoy it!
Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan | Picador for an ARC in exchange for an honest review
The book is often described as being confusing, repetitive and with a really poor ending. Although I enjoyed the book, I do see where its critics are coming from so would caution anyone going in to read this novel, that it is not your typical locked-door whodunnit.
The book is set out that way, in a manner which many recent mystery novels are set. A single location, a dead body and a list of suspects - one of whom must be the murderer. However, this book (for me) is almost a comical look at these types of novels with its tongue firmly in its cheek, almost like an homage to murder mystery novels of the past.
This will definitely not be for everyone, I will say that. The ending may annoy you.
But if you go into it with eyes open, mind open and few expectations, you will enjoy it!
Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan | Picador for an ARC in exchange for an honest review
August 11, 2025
I beg your finest fucking pardon. What the hell is this?!?!
This is NOT a murder mystery. This is the 1985 Clue Movie with every alternate ending and no true answers. fuck this.
*I did really love Abigail so I'm very very disappointed. This contained some of the best depictions of grief that I've ever related to — BUT no murder mystery loving person would ever recommend this*
Here lies my unhinged thoughts from my notes app:
Are they still in the Airbnb?? I can't figure out where the fuck they are. Where are the home owners?? Wouldn't they be freaking out?? It's supposedly weeks later.
Why the fourth wall breaking??? & Mystery novel references??
Maybe not getting some Irish bits??
Abigail's incessant thoughts of "my brother's dead" felt too real. I teared up. All the after death parts just feel so accurate.
What in the Clue is happening here?
WTF. *Insert gif of Bradley Cooper from Silver Lining's Playbook throwing the book out the window*
This is NOT a murder mystery. This is the 1985 Clue Movie with every alternate ending and no true answers. fuck this.
*I did really love Abigail so I'm very very disappointed. This contained some of the best depictions of grief that I've ever related to — BUT no murder mystery loving person would ever recommend this*
Here lies my unhinged thoughts from my notes app:
Are they still in the Airbnb?? I can't figure out where the fuck they are. Where are the home owners?? Wouldn't they be freaking out?? It's supposedly weeks later.
Why the fourth wall breaking??? & Mystery novel references??
Maybe not getting some Irish bits??
Abigail's incessant thoughts of "my brother's dead" felt too real. I teared up. All the after death parts just feel so accurate.
What in the Clue is happening here?
WTF. *Insert gif of Bradley Cooper from Silver Lining's Playbook throwing the book out the window*
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 21, 2025
Fair Play by Louise Hegartyis a mystery novel about a man found dead in his bedroom after a party to celebrate his birthday.
First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Pan Macmillan/Picador, and the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. However, I will be more selective when I request from this publisher, as they only offered a pdf version of the book -- which didn't work well on either my kobo nor my kindle e-reader.
Okay, in one way this was the ultimate mystery within a mystery. In other ways, it was just confusing.
Part One introduced us to Abigail and her plans for the birthday bash, where she is renting an airbnb. Part Two introduced us to characters, some of which are not part of Abigail's plans - like a butler and a maid, and soon I'm not even sure who owns the house. Part Two also gave us "rules" for writing a murder mystery, taken from various magazine articles in the 1920's. The author definitely knows the "golden age" of authors like Christie.-- even the neighbours called "Mallowen". The next parts mostly dealt with the detective interviewing the guests and coming to different conclusions each time. All of this was very different from a normal mystery novel, and if executed a little better, could have been amazing.
If you can't handle repetition in your reading material, I would recommend you pass on this one. Even though the repetition was intentional, I found it grating.
The best part of the book showed how Abigail dealt with the death of her brother. This look at grief was very well done.
So, overall, this book probably wasn't for me. However, the author's knowledge definitely crept in, and again, the topic of grief over the death of a loved one was phenomenal.
Anyway, until next time....
For a more complete review of this book and others (including the reason I chose to read/review this book, my own synopsis of the book, and its author information), please visit my blog: http://katlovesbooksblog.wordpress.com/
March 25, 2025
This grew on me toward the end but if I hadn't received an eARC directly from Picador, I'm not sure I would have put in the effort to keep plodding through the early sections.
Abigail throws an annual combined New Years Eve/Birthday party for her beloved older brother, Benjamin. She constructs a murder-mystery evening, each year more elaborate than the last. Only this year, the party wakes up on New Years Day to a real dead body in a locked room. The Gardai say Benjamin killed himself.
From here the plot diverges into two paths: in one, we see Abigail struggling to cope in the aftermath of her brother's death. In the other, we continue the Golden Age Detective story begun at the murder-mystery dinner, where Benjamin's death is investigated as if in a book.
The author is clearly a huge fan of detective stories and very knowledgeable about their quirks and formulae. I don't think the 'fair play' aspect was utilised very well, though. It actually felt like an unnecessary distraction. It set up the expectation that FAIR PLAY might be a murder-mystery when it isn't. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if it solely used the detective sections as a commentary on the need to create narratives to help us understand and process grief because that's where they shone. The meta asides poking good-natured fun at the genre also felt a little out of place: the main storyline was too dour for them to fit in, tone-wise, but the jokes weren't funny enough to feel like comic relief.
Overall, I liked the concept behind this and I think the author has some good intentions with this book but it was muddled in execution. The inclusion of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction was a bit scattershot and never fully justified its own inclusion.
Abigail throws an annual combined New Years Eve/Birthday party for her beloved older brother, Benjamin. She constructs a murder-mystery evening, each year more elaborate than the last. Only this year, the party wakes up on New Years Day to a real dead body in a locked room. The Gardai say Benjamin killed himself.
From here the plot diverges into two paths: in one, we see Abigail struggling to cope in the aftermath of her brother's death. In the other, we continue the Golden Age Detective story begun at the murder-mystery dinner, where Benjamin's death is investigated as if in a book.
The author is clearly a huge fan of detective stories and very knowledgeable about their quirks and formulae. I don't think the 'fair play' aspect was utilised very well, though. It actually felt like an unnecessary distraction. It set up the expectation that FAIR PLAY might be a murder-mystery when it isn't. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if it solely used the detective sections as a commentary on the need to create narratives to help us understand and process grief because that's where they shone. The meta asides poking good-natured fun at the genre also felt a little out of place: the main storyline was too dour for them to fit in, tone-wise, but the jokes weren't funny enough to feel like comic relief.
Overall, I liked the concept behind this and I think the author has some good intentions with this book but it was muddled in execution. The inclusion of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction was a bit scattershot and never fully justified its own inclusion.
April 11, 2025
I haven’t even finished the book yet but I had to come and leave this review. If you can’t stand repetition, and I mean many minutes literally repeating the same stuff with barely BARELY any variation, avoid this book.
Annoying but I’m already halfway through so I want to know who the killer is but it’s such a bore.
The whole play book of how the murder mysteries go, and the repetition are a bore.
Annoying but I’m already halfway through so I want to know who the killer is but it’s such a bore.
The whole play book of how the murder mysteries go, and the repetition are a bore.
May 22, 2025
Ambitious in its meta-narrative construction, but still somehow reads so amateurish. The prose in the narrative that frames the mystery is poor. And at the climax there is a bit that becomes interminable and lets whatever wind there might have been in the sails completely out.
August 9, 2025
⭐⭐⭐⭐
I suspect that my rating of this one is not the popular opinion. While I see a few reviewers who enjoyed it, I also see a lot who simply found it confusing and frustrating.
It is a book within a book and occasionally breaks the fourth wall when the detective speaks directly to the reader. The detective also acknowledges openly that he is a detective in a mystery novel and even refers to upcoming chapters where the reader will learn additional information about the mystery. It includes many nods to the golden age of mysteries with Agatha Christie references sprinkled throughout. However, the detective in the book within the book story is an obvious parody. If Hercule Poirot and Inspector Clouseau (from Pink Panther fame) had a child, he might be this detective. At least that's the vibe that I got from him.
This makes for a confusing narrative at times as the reader tries to figure out what is reality and what is fictional. The author also plays with time so it is not always obvious with the first few sentences of a chapter which timeline we're in.
I'm not going to go into too many details about the plot as it is easy to spoil this story but it starts with Abigail throwing a New Year's Eve party for a close group of friends. January 1st also happens to be her brother's birthday so the party is also a birthday celebration for Benjamin. They are close in age and share a friend group and this is an annual tradition. However, celebration quickly turns to horror when Benjamin is found dead behind a locked door in the Airbnb Abigail rented for the night. It's a true locked room mystery and the story plays out as Abigail grieves the loss of her brother.
At its heart, this is a story about grief and the incredible loneliness death can leave in its wake. If you like a book within a book, ambiguous story telling and unclear timelines, you might consider picking this one up. It won't be for everyone though.
I suspect that my rating of this one is not the popular opinion. While I see a few reviewers who enjoyed it, I also see a lot who simply found it confusing and frustrating.
It is a book within a book and occasionally breaks the fourth wall when the detective speaks directly to the reader. The detective also acknowledges openly that he is a detective in a mystery novel and even refers to upcoming chapters where the reader will learn additional information about the mystery. It includes many nods to the golden age of mysteries with Agatha Christie references sprinkled throughout. However, the detective in the book within the book story is an obvious parody. If Hercule Poirot and Inspector Clouseau (from Pink Panther fame) had a child, he might be this detective. At least that's the vibe that I got from him.
This makes for a confusing narrative at times as the reader tries to figure out what is reality and what is fictional. The author also plays with time so it is not always obvious with the first few sentences of a chapter which timeline we're in.
I'm not going to go into too many details about the plot as it is easy to spoil this story but it starts with Abigail throwing a New Year's Eve party for a close group of friends. January 1st also happens to be her brother's birthday so the party is also a birthday celebration for Benjamin. They are close in age and share a friend group and this is an annual tradition. However, celebration quickly turns to horror when Benjamin is found dead behind a locked door in the Airbnb Abigail rented for the night. It's a true locked room mystery and the story plays out as Abigail grieves the loss of her brother.
At its heart, this is a story about grief and the incredible loneliness death can leave in its wake. If you like a book within a book, ambiguous story telling and unclear timelines, you might consider picking this one up. It won't be for everyone though.
June 4, 2025
really smart example of why genre fiction freaking rocks: a book that attracts readers for its palatable form is able to weasel (non-derogatory) its way toward a moving examination of grief.
the premise ended up being a little gimmicky for my taste—it got repetitive, especially once i was able to discern what the project of the book was—but kudos to the author for an ambitious concept and clever execution. in her debut, no less!
the premise ended up being a little gimmicky for my taste—it got repetitive, especially once i was able to discern what the project of the book was—but kudos to the author for an ambitious concept and clever execution. in her debut, no less!
March 23, 2025
This review will be about the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good being: I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway!
Now, for the bad. Suffice to say, I’ll be spoilering from here on out because I don’t think I can say much about it without giving something away.
Overall, it’s not a terrible book. I have my issues and I hope the finished copy tidies it all up (somehow, I don’t think it will). I know people will love it; I’m just not one of those people. The story is unique and that is a breath of fresh air with oft-regurgitated storylines nowadays. I give it a solid 3 stars.
Vocabulary sin: 1 or 2
Vocabulary halo: 0
Now, for the bad. Suffice to say, I’ll be spoilering from here on out because I don’t think I can say much about it without giving something away.
Overall, it’s not a terrible book. I have my issues and I hope the finished copy tidies it all up (somehow, I don’t think it will). I know people will love it; I’m just not one of those people. The story is unique and that is a breath of fresh air with oft-regurgitated storylines nowadays. I give it a solid 3 stars.
Vocabulary sin: 1 or 2
Vocabulary halo: 0
August 6, 2025
This was more of an exercise in cleverness rather than a whodunnit or whydunnit. All the elements stemming from the Golden Age of detective stories are here, but they were much better handled in Horowitz's Magpie series. Admittedly, this book benefited by being read closely after an inferior one, but I still enjoyed the setup and resolution.
September 23, 2024
A fun, unique and inventive novel. Fair Play by Louise Hegarty is hard to define, part-murder mystery reminiscent of Agatha Christie with some interesting meta-elements. I loved that it was a detective novel that knows it’s a detective novel with the fourth wall breaks really bringing something unique and fun. For most of this book, I had this pegged as my top read of the year, it was that interesting and fresh, however the later half of the book brought it down for me. Maybe it just went over my head, or didn’t live up to the high expectations I’d set thus far, but nonetheless this one is worth reading. Highly recommend.
April 30, 2025
This was the absolute worst book I’ve ever read. Like literally i’m in utter shock about how horrendously written this book is. And the WORST part is that you’d think it would be a really cool concept. So I here I was reading this book thinking it was going to get good but IT JUST KEPT GETTING WORSE.
Read it if you want, but be warned: it makes no freaking sense, and the ending is extremely unsatisfying. What a waste of my time.
I genuinely wish I could unread this book lol
Read it if you want, but be warned: it makes no freaking sense, and the ending is extremely unsatisfying. What a waste of my time.
I genuinely wish I could unread this book lol
April 27, 2025
Enjoyed it until the ending. Wtf was that? Are we sure the finished copy was submitted to the printers
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