‘Sally Rooney meets The Secret History’ - The Sunday Times
‘Dazzling' - Colin Walsh, author of Kala
‘Brilliant’ - The Times
‘Ingenious’ - The Telegraph
‘Terrific’ - The New York Times
‘Heartbreaking’ - The Guardian
THE HEART IS A LOCKED ROOM
Abigail’s brother Benjamin is dead, and her world has literally been split in two. In one reality Abigail finds herself back at work, navigating the frustrations of well-wishers and busybodies, desperately wondering why her brother has gone. In the other an eminent detective arrives determined to find Benjamin’s killer among his circle of close friends.
Is this a murder mystery or something more? What secrets do Benjamin’s friends hold? And can Abigail, immersed in her grief, find out the truth of her beloved brother’s life.
‘A treat . . . Takes on the biggest questions of life and death’ - PAUL MURRAY, author of THE BEE STING
Genre: Mystery
‘Dazzling' - Colin Walsh, author of Kala
‘Brilliant’ - The Times
‘Ingenious’ - The Telegraph
‘Terrific’ - The New York Times
‘Heartbreaking’ - The Guardian
THE HEART IS A LOCKED ROOM
Abigail’s brother Benjamin is dead, and her world has literally been split in two. In one reality Abigail finds herself back at work, navigating the frustrations of well-wishers and busybodies, desperately wondering why her brother has gone. In the other an eminent detective arrives determined to find Benjamin’s killer among his circle of close friends.
Is this a murder mystery or something more? What secrets do Benjamin’s friends hold? And can Abigail, immersed in her grief, find out the truth of her beloved brother’s life.
‘A treat . . . Takes on the biggest questions of life and death’ - PAUL MURRAY, author of THE BEE STING
Genre: Mystery
Praise for this book
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
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