Adult Book Club: “Fair Play” by Louise Hegarty

About this event

This month’s book is Fair Play by Louise Hegarty. From the NYTimes: Louise Hegarty’s novel, “Fair Play,” nods to classic 1920s detective fiction, with a twist. A group of friends convenes for an overnight murder mystery party in an Irish country house on New Year’s Eve, and each guest is assigned a part by the hostess, Abigail. Her brother, Benjamin, who’s celebrating his 33rd birthday, plays the murderer. The next morning Benjamin is found dead in his room, an empty bottle of pills by his bed, the door secured from inside — an apparent suicide, though Abigail insists he wasn’t suicidal. Hegarty tips her hand (and her hat) by including in the narrative three real-life lists of “rules” for fictional mysteries from the 1920s, the start of the so-called Golden Age of detective fiction…Readers will enjoy the Easter eggs hidden in the underbrush…I wished it were clearer how the small details of the dual investigations were meant to mesh. But they’re wonderful separately, and as a whole they serve as a bracing meditation on the different ways we perceive death (and fiction). About the Author: Louise Hegarty’s work has appeared in Banshee, the Tangerine, the Stinging Fly, and the Dublin Review, and has been featured on BBC Radio 4’s Short Works. She was the inaugural winner of the Sunday Business Post/Penguin Ireland Short Story Prize. Her short story “Getting the Electric” has been optioned by Fíbín Media. She lives in Cork, Ireland. The Adult Book Club meets in-person at the Library on the second Friday of each month. If you have questions about the Book Club, please email Linda Reimer: reimerl@stls.org Check our calendar for future dates and book selections.

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