New Year's Eve is also the eve of Abigail's brother Benjamin's birthday. To celebrate, this year like others, she's organised a murder mystery party to mark both occasions. The guests arrive, the night goes off largely without a hitch and everyone goes off to bed, but the morning after Benjamin is found dead in a locked bedroom and things take a strange turn.

Unable to accept the authorities declaration that her brother's death was a suicide Abigail calls in celebrated detective Auguste Bell. What follows is an Agatha Christie-esque country house mystery intercut with Abigail trying, and failing, to come to terms with her brother's untimely demise..

Things get annoyingly repetitive towards the end as Bell gathers the suspects in classic fashion, lays out his deductions and identifies the culprit again and again and again, but this is neatly mirrored by Abigail meeting with, and herself almost interrogating, each of the guests.

Without this, and a poignant final chapter, I'd have been left slightly underwhelmed. Perhaps wanting a solution or twist, but this is rarely the case with suicides. There are often no easy answers, no solutions or even closure and I suspect this was author Louise Hegarty's intention.

Thanks to NetGalley, Picador and the author for an advance copy.

An interesting book written in quite an unusual way. At first I found the change in delivery a bit jarring but I got used to it and really enjoyed it overall. The characters were well-developed. Rightly or wrongly I found myself liking Abigail best out of all of the right from the beginning. So she definitely didn’t do it. Or did she… Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy of this book.

A locked room murder mystery that got quite confusing and strange. Some really good characters but I think I prefer either Agatha Christie-esq or not. This was something in between but entertaining nevertheless.

"At this point in the narrative, you should have everything you need to solve the crime. You should, through use of logic and deduction, be able to not merely guess, but prove, the identity of the culprit. You should also be able to explain how the murder occurred, and indeed, why."

I think it's safe to say that at no point in this narrative did I feel able to solve the crime. I barely understood what was going on most of the time. While I appreciate how the author has tried to put a unique spin on the classic detective novel, Fair Play just didn't work for me.

In honour of her brother's birthday, Abigail rents an AirBnB and gathers a group of friends for a murder mystery-themed celebration. It's all fun and games until the next morning, when they discover that one of their party is actually dead. So far, so good. But then it all gets a bit confusing. There's an unexplained location change, new characters are introduced seemingly at random, and a famous Poirot-style foreign detective and his sidekick are invited to investigate the murder.

Without giving any spoilers, it reads almost like two similar but entirely distinct stories have been mashed together: a "locked room mystery" and a study of grief. I enjoyed elements of each strand — particularly the little references to classic crime writers (there's mention of St. Mary Mead and a pair of dogs named Tommy and Tuppence) — but overall it was just a bit too difficult to follow. An interesting concept, but perhaps it needed more to help guide the reader through.

Thanks NetGalley for the e-ARC. Unfortunately this isn't for me, but maybe good for other fans of classic crime, murder mysteries, and genre-bending fiction.

Agatha Christie’s novels have had several ‘re-imaginings’ over recent years, and Fair Play is a particularly skilful twenty-first century take on Christie’s ‘locked room’ murder mysteries. As the pages unfold, however, it becomes something more. The plot opens in Part One with the preparations for a murder mystery event that Abigail organises for her brother Benjamin’s birthday on New Year’s Eve in a big Irish country mansion. Each guest is assigned a role to play and there can only be one murderer and one victim …. But sadly, it turns out there is one victim to the game and one victim in real life, as the day after the murder, Benjamin is found dead. Overcome with grief, Abigail implores seasoned detective Auguste Bell to solve the mystery behind Benjamin’s death. This leads onto traditional ‘locked room’ investigation by a cunning detective and his hapless sidekick in Part Two. As readers before me have pointed out, there are plenty of satirical moments referring to the ‘golden age of crime’ here and plenty of subtle homages to well-loved fictional detectives of the past. What makes this part of the novel special and keeps it fresh, however, are the interspersed chapters of how Abigail navigates her grief. The various backwards- and forwards- in time and the gradual revelations of the ancillary characters’ backstories make this quite a challenging murder mystery to digest, but a very worthwhile one for readers willing to persist. I am grateful to the publishers and NetGalley for the free ARC that allowed me to write this unbiased review.

A Locked Room…?
A grand old house, a murder mystery party, a murder, a highbrow detective and a host of suspects. Beginning, rather stylishly, as a locked room mystery the author pulls the reader into a tale of suspense, mystery, murder and suspicion. The tale takes a turn, becomes something else entirely and ends on a wholly alternative key. Plenty to like here initially but whilst the turn in the tale is, perhaps, unexpected it may not be to every readers liking and may, ultimately, be rather a disappointment.

I am not sure how to write this review, for the most of the book I loved it. The last part was awful and while I understand that all publicity is good publicity, I struggle to see why an author would write such a considered novel just to end it in the same way an elementary school child would.

Benjamin and Abigail are siblings that lost their parents a long while ago, they celebrate Benjamin’s birthday every year on New Year’s Eve with friends from childhood. This year Abigail has hired an Air BNB and we first meet them as she is organizing ready for everyone to arrive.

I had some confusion here as they are at hired house, but later in the story when the investigation begins they have moved to their own home. I’ve read and reread but I can’t see how this could possibly happen if the investigation was ongoing?

The characters are hard to get a read on, and this does work well here. Bell and Sacker however are truly some of the best characters I have ever read (which is why this is possible too passionate review). I love when books are self aware and I love injokes with the reader. I would love to see them again and think they have many a series in them.

The book is written with intentional joy for the reader in mind. The use of repetition is sublime

But the ending; I felt like I had wasted my time.

I received this eARC from Netgalley in return for an honest review, which this is.

Starting off like any other cozy ‘who dunnit’, Fair Play changes to a different type of book entirely. With a nod to many writing greats, such as Christie, it was certainly quirky and different.

I haven’t read a locked door thriller before (I didn’t even know they are a thing) but I liked it and was keen to see what happened and how. It’s hidden depth is where it touches on loss, which was well done.

Am I a convert to locked room books? Possibly not. But I think there is definitely an audience for this book which was action packed and certainly different.

I like locked room mystery in general, and I thought I’d enjoy this but I found the writing too dry for my taste, so it was difficult for me to get into it . But then once murder happened, I got more into and I enjoyed it. It’s ingenious and stylish. I am a bit unsure about how I feel about the ending. Is this a murder mystery? I can’t say more to avoid spoilers, but I can imagine the opinions on the ending would be polarized! Still a good read.

I have mixed feelings about this debut novel. It started out as an excellent locked-room murder mystery and was quite entertaining with a unique and clever way of writing. Made me want to re-read some of Agatha Christie's books. But after about 2/3 of the text, it kind of sizzled out for me. The parts where the author explores grief and loss, as well as Part 3 of the novel were quite good on their own, but did not tie well into the other parts of the book. Having said that, I do not regret reading this, mainly for the first part of the book. And, knowing this is a debut, I would still read Hegarty's further work.

📖 𝕊𝕪𝕟𝕠𝕡𝕤𝕚𝕤: Benjamin's birthday is on New Year's day and his sister Abigail, gathers their friends for a murder mystery party. The next morning everyone wakes up except Benjamin. Abigail hires a private detective to find Benjamin's killer, which must be someone who was in the house that night. Abigail tries to deal with her brother's mysterious death and along the way realises that Benjamin's life might not have been what she thought it was.

This dectective story using detective tropes from fictional stories by the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie toggled back and forward from past and present with the same set of characters to tell the story of a house party and a locked room murder mystery.
This was a clever technique, but it distracted me from the characters, so I couldn't find any real empathy for any of them, and wasn't overly interested in who murdered whom.
It's well written and the plot works, but the narrative just wasn't for me personally.

I just couldn't understand this book. I've studied lots of literature to a high level. This foxed me. I couldn't keep track of the layers of plot. I'm still clueless about how it's concluded.
Not the book for me.

This was one of those meta kind of books that try to challenge the rules of writing a mystery by being more than a straightforward whodunnit. This can always be very tricky and while there have been times when this experiment has been successful, this wasn't one of them. Felt a little forced and not sure what went wrong where but the book felt messy.

Quirky book, part locked room, part traditional whodunit, and part study of grief & loss. This author has an unusual writing style, particularly the way the story switches in part 2, and the way the book ended was unexpected, and non-traditional. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance reader copy.

Lovely unique and clever little murder-mystery book. I thoroughly enjoyed the fast half the book but found it didn’t match the beginning vibes for me. It’s good though, just didn’t quite pull me fully in.

I was disappointed with this despite being excited at the premise. After a murder mystery party, there's a body the next day and the novel takes us through clues to work out who the murderer is.
The author appears to be following a set of rules on detective stories. The parallel stories for me didn't work and were difficult to follow. It might have been because I was reading an ebook which had some formatting quirks. I don't feel like we're told who the murderer was in the end. Just like detective fiction, everyone is a suspect and the repetitive way this is presented is funny but not particularly powerful.
I also don't understand the purpose of Part 3 which seemed a very out of place and didn't serve much of a purpose other than to give some insight into the victims personality...albeit as an 8 year old.
Also, the novel is supposedly set in Ireland. I would have expected some dialect to support this because as it's written, it could be anywhere.

This book was nothing like I expected it is like reading two separate books, and while this can work within some novels I felt it didn't quite gel together with this. That being said it's an interesting book.
Told in third POV we hear Abbie's story surrounding the death of her brother at his NYE's birthday party and we are presented with murder mystery book in the style of classic golden age crime which appears to be the same characters but in set in a different time etc. Take a bit of time to get to grips with.
I loved everything about murder mystery part , that part of book it was real treat. It was true classic golden crime with done slap stick humour a cast of mad characters with secrets and questionable police.
If it has been a stand alone cosy crime I would have enjoyed it but probably forgot about. What makes memorable is the other part of the book which is far from cosy crimes. It very much character lead ,that read more like literally fiction, this part of the book was , told with a tender voice and uses real insight in grief it reads deeply and is very moving. But for me the two parts don't work together without being addressed in some way. I think the writer has tried to show how Abbie might have processed the lose of her brother with the cost crime part being her inner thoughts or even a diary but as it's not stated that's the case it's hard to be sure maybe it's just I am not smart enough to get it
Taking all that into account this is a debut that is an interesting one and I really look forward to reading more from this author if this unique novel is anything to go by.

"Fair Play" by Louise Hegarty definitely is a unique book. I enjoyed the way that it very quickly transitioned from a New Year's Eve Murder Mystery party to a real life locked room mystery who dunnit. From thereon, confusion does reign. There are chapters where famous detective Auguste Bell (based on Poirot) rocks up to solve Abigail's brother's death. Suspects are interviewed and clues are given. Then the very next chapter might be Abigail back at work, coping with Benjamin's death. I imagine that the chapters with Auguste Bell link heavily to the Murder Mystery party that Abigail had set up but I can't be 100% certain. The bit I don't get is the very last chapter/epilogue. I do feel as if I need to go back and read this again as based on other reviews, the answers to the rest of the book lie in those ending words. Clever but maybe too clever for me?

This debut is pretty much perfect from start to end. I ended up at the 4.5 mark as I was confused with the outcome until I read other reviews and everything clicked. This is so good for a debut book. For the most part, it reads like a Lemony Snicket book, which I didn't expect, and there are also two stories told throughout, which I didn't realise until embarrassingly late on. It has both a bittersweet ending and a sort of open ending. You'll have to read to find out what that means. I'll definitely be thinking about this one for a while; it's easily one of my favourites of the year. I also am obsessed with the cover!

4.5

This debut book pays tribute to classic early 20th-century detective novels by weaving a modern locked room murder mystery with a poignant exploration of grief and loss.

On New Year's Eve, a group of friends gathers at an Airbnb to celebrate Benjamin's birthday with a jazz-age Murder Mystery party hosted by his sister, Abigail. As the night unfolds, champagne flows, hors d'oeuvres are enjoyed, and relationships shift—some deepen while others unravel. A murder rattles the other guests and makes them question just how close they really are.

A Poirot-esque detective intent on uncovering the truth along with his Watson-like sidekick try solving the case, where everyone becomes a suspect, and appearances are deceiving.

While I loved the quirky take at a locked-room murder mystery, the ending left me a bit confused, and I wanted something more out of the story.