Louise Hegarty - Fair Play (in conversation with PJ Ellis)

We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have Louise Hegarty joining us here at The Heath Bookshop to talk about her book, 'Fair Play', in conversation with PJ Ellis.

Louise and Barbara will be in conversation for around an hour. There will be a book signing afterwards.

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 recently 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. 

Fair Play: 

A LOCKED ROOM. A HIDDEN LIFE. 

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 . . . 


Praise for Fair Play:

''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, author of Kala

'An ingenious puzzle-box of a novel, where nothing is solved but everything is 
discovered. Sad, funny, clever, engrossing; this is a wonderful debut.' 
John McGregor, author of Reservoir 11.

As always, we look forward to seeing you. 

Catherine & Claire