Engaging, entertaining, and well-narrated. A recommended purchase for collections where more meta fiction is popular.

Thanks to Harper Audio & NetGalley for providing an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Don't you hate it when you read a mystery novel and it turns out not to be a mystery at all? Me too. :/

So, it seems that Hegarty thought she needed a hook for this story, and she opted for a meta- approach in which we start out with the actual stuff that happened, the death is discovered, and then, for some reason, we revert to a "locked room mystery," complete with an annoying Hercule Poirot type and a country manor with all the Agatha Christie trimmings. But it really just does not work.

As we progress to later chapters, the story becomes more and more repetitive and less and less fun to listen to.

The 4th wall breaking is fun enough but the book just doesn't GO anywhere, and in the end the reader is left not knowing much more than when they started. Not successful, IMO.

e-audiobook ARC from Netgalley. All thoughts are my own.

I didn't realize that this was a Meta Mystery until the second narrator came along, and since it took me by surprise, I was confused and wondered if I had missed something important in an earlier chapter. I absolutely love Benjamin Stevenson's 'Ernest Cunningham' series, so I was already familiar with the Meta Mystery concept, but Fair Play changes so many details in the dual timelines of the 'real' murder and the Agatha Christie/ Clue mashup version of the murder, that it didn't feel fun, but like homework.

I finally had to listen to the story as two separate timelines, which made me less irritable about the discrepancies in the plot. The narrators each did a marvelous job; I do wonder whose idea it was to make Detective Bell sound exactly like Hercule Poirot?

SPOILERS BELOW
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The final vignette about Benjamin and Abagail's childhood day at the beach was a lovely way to close the story, since it turns out (I think? I'm still a bit confused about how the author wants us to think about how Benjamin died) that Benjamin died by suicide, rather than murder. It redeemed the book from being only 2 stars for me; each of the 'alternate' methods of murder that were presented a la Clue the movie became repetitive and ridiculous.

This was an incredibly clever concept, but I do worry that there should be some kind of warning that the "real" story is darker and not a mystery at all. Once it became apparent that there wasn't a mystery at all I settled into it and let the author's story of grief unfold, but at first you really think there is a real mystery and then the traditional, play on great mysteries taking place at the same time.

This was a fun, genre-bending debut that takes on the locked-room murder mystery trope with fresh eyes and a lot of heart. I loved the set up for a 20s themed New Year's eve murder mystery party gone wrong. Cue in an actual cos-playing Sherlock Holmes type detective and it made for lots of fun. Recommended for fans of Agatha Christie and Susan Juby. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review. I look forward to reading more by Louise Hegarty.

The traditional locked room mystery presented in a very untraditional manner! This is perfect for fans of Anthony Horowitz's Magpie Murders Series as well as those golden age detective fans who are well acquainted with the "rules" of the genre -- as to what is fair play and what is not.

The narrator enhances the atmospheric quality of the writing, creating the perfect ambience for this take on the classic whodunnit.

This didn’t work for me in audio. I appreciate the experimentation with form but in audio it was confusing and repetitive in a way I found irritating. I think I would have enjoyed it more, or at least been able to better appreciate what [I think) it was trying to do, had I read it in print.

I really didn't like this book. I found it really difficult to follow the mystery at times and confusing.

Fair Play is a subversive twist on both Golden Age mysteries and grief fiction – a metanarrative that both embraces and eschews genre conventions. If Clue (1985) and Alison Espach’s Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance had a brainchild, it would be Fair Play (and yes, I know how strange that sounds!).

A group of friends gather for their annual New Year’s Eve celebration. As with previous years, Abigail plans a murder mystery themed party for her brother Benjamin’s birthday – an elaborate affair complete with characters, murder weapons, red herrings, and a detective. The group sings happy birthday to their friend and wander off to bed. In the morning, all of them wake up – except Benjamin.
In one timeline, an eminent detective (practically a copy-paste of Hercule Poirot) arrives, determined to find Benjamin’s killer. He investigates the Jazz Age mansion and its occupants – party guests and employees alike – to determine who would wish Benjamin ill. What proceeds is a Clue-esque romp of the grounds, stirring up old rivalries, culminating in one (or more) trope-perfect Accusation Scenes.
In another timeline, Abigail is struggling in the wake of her brother’s suicide. She wanders like a ghost through her twenty-first century job, her friend’s feeble attempts at connection, and her home life. Abigail must find a way to piece herself back together in the wake of this unimaginable loss.

This audiobook was dual-narrated by Aoife McMahon as the modern-day Abigail, and Andrew Wincott as the Jazz-age detective Auguste Bell. Wincott did a lovely job as the (French?) detective. When speaking as Detective Bell, his accent was thick but not campy. During the narrations, his crisp British accent perfectly matched the trope of the Golden Age detective story. I would liken his performance to that of Ian Fraser or David Suchet’s audio narrations of various Agatha Christie novels. McMahon, however, stole the show for me. I was particularly struck by two scenes. In the first (chapter sixteen), Abigail is internally rehashing the events of Christmas just prior to her brother’s death. The narrator’s evolving style – sometimes factual, sometimes a quick mumble, sometimes a high-pitched keen of confusion and anguish – brought so much life and emotion to what is otherwise is endless repetition of the same facts. Same in chapter eighteen; Abigail is navigating the external world with the endless internal monologue of “my brother is dead my brother is dead my brother is dead” running in the background. It’s absolutely heartbreaking.

Hegarty leans heavily on genre tropes in the Jazz-detective-throughline; the meta-narrative almost out-metas itself by referencing events that haven’t happened yet (‘in chapter 30, you will see that I will carry out an experiment testing the strength of the trellis…’) or characters yet to come into the picture. It’s so rompy and fun, a true delight. Detective Bell peels back everybody’s motivations and reasons for wanting Benjamin dead with his clever conversations and keen observational skills, much like Holmes or Poirot. Indeed, these scenes made me long to revisit the manor at Styles or the Orient Express.

But there are few, if any, tropes to lean on in grief fiction; in the modern scenes, Abigail is forced to fumble her own way through her emotions and the world around her. Hegarty’s portrayal of sorrow, with all of its sharp edges in unexpected places, is poignant and true to life.

Fans of metanarratives will find lots to enjoy here, but this book also appeals to classic mystery readers and those who enjoy emotional fiction. Five stars.

Perhaps reading it rather than listening to it would help, but I found the movement between the "current" storyline and the book within the book confusing and offputting. I've read Horowitz's series and liked it, so I was excited to experience an Irish version. I ended up stopping halfway through because I just didn't care about the characters nor the plot.

Amazingly well-written book about nostalgia and being in mourning. Not even remotely a mystery. If you don't like meta fiction, put this down. If you enjoy writing that is Art (I do. I am weird like that.) then please pick this book up you will not regret it. There was something in this which is generally triggering for me, but it was presented in such a way that I was ok-ish with it. It's not like it's something that could have been removed from the plot. Also the "Watson" was really more of a "Wooster", but that's not really important.