Fair Play

This is a murder mystery.This is a story about love.Or is it? . . .'A treat . . . Takes on the biggest questions of life and death' – Paul Murray, author of The Bee Sting‘Dazzling' – Colin Walsh, author of Kala‘Brilliant' – The Times‘Ingenious’ – The Telegraph'Terrific' – The New York Times'Heartbreaking' – The Guardian‘Sally Rooney meets The Secret History’ – The Sunday TimesAbigail 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.

Louise Hegarty’s stories have appeared in Banshee, The Tangerine, The Stinging Fly and The Dublin Review and have been featured on BBC Radio 4. She was the inaugural winner of the Sunday Business Post/Penguin Ireland Short Story Prize and her story ‘Now, Voyager’ was produced as part of A City and A Garden, a new state-of-the-art sonic experience commissioned by Sounds from a Safe Harbour in association with Body & Soul and presented as part of Brightening Air | Coiscéim Coiligh. Fair Play is her debut novel.