Description
‘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, author of The Bee Sting
Join us for a mystery-filled evening, where author Louise Hegarty will be discussing her debut novel, Fair Play: part detective story and part literary family story, this crackling debut is a puzzle-box story of two competing tales.
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…
‘Dazzling, formally subversive, brimming with compassion, Fair Play explodes the conventions of a mystery in order to confront us with the genuinely mysterious.’ – Colin Walsh, author of Kala
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. Fair Play is her first novel.
She will be joined in conversation with Leon Craig, a freelance writer, critic, and the author of the short story collection Parallel Hells. Leon’s debut novel, The Decadence, will be published by Sceptre later this year.
Ticket price includes a glass of wine or a soft drink.