Fair Play? More Like Foul Play!

A woman named Abigail throws a Jazz Age murder mystery themed party for Benjamin’s birthday on New Years Eve. As the night plays out, the usual things happen drunken party goers, hors d’ oeuvres eaten, someone kisses the wrong person, and someone’s heart is broken. The morning approaches and everyone wakes up, except for birthday boy Benjamin. In the beginning a doctor and police believe it is suicide but Abigail & investigator, Detective Bell know its not so. They know someone murdered Benjamin, & that that someone is still in the Irish mansion…

Entertaining, but confused & choppy

Fair Play is an entertaining mystery. I like that the setting is in Ireland. I love Detective Bell & his sidekick Sacker; they were like modern-day Sherlock & Watson. I did get the vibe that it was a modern-day murder mystery taking from Agatha Christie, Sherlock & Anthony Horowitz and there were good ideas there, but the story was trying to become too many things at once. At one point, Benjamin & Abigail’s aunt brings a psychic to the mansion to find out what happened and who murdered Benjamin. Yes, a psychic! This scene was comical, and she never returned. The ending is a bit confusing. Each chapter towards the end has the detective figure out who murdered Benjamin & why & all plausible reasons, but it begs the question. Is this a Build Your Own Murder Mystery Book? It’s never established that, that’s what this book is.  If you want to read this book like a build your own mystery, go ahead. This book is entertaining but come into this knowing that it’s not going to be the greatest mystery of all time. Fair Play by Louise Hegarty is available now wherever books are sold. I was lucky to read an early copy last month.