This was our July book for discussion at Book Group – and yes, it generated a good discussion – but that doesn’t mean that readers enjoyed it! Only 2 out of 7 were largely positive, including me, with one more on the fence, the rest found it irritating and repetitive – it all gets very meta, you have been warned. All of us, however, questioned the ending! Personally, I thought it was clever, and an affectionate homage to Agatha Christie in particular, and other notable Golden Age mystery writers.
Every year, Abigail and her brother Benjamin, who having lost their parents are very close, host a murder mystery party for their friends. Abigail prides herself on creating the mysteries and arranges everything. She leads the unfolding mystery on the night after participants have dined, having planted clues. Guests are given an idea of the setting so they can dress up to immerse themselves in things. This year, it’s happening on the eve of Benjamin’s birthday which coincides with New Year’s Day – he’ll be 33, and she’s rented a large country house for the occasion. As the evening approaches the guests all arrive: There’s Benjamin’s oldest and most reprobate friend Declan; couple Cormac and Olivia, Cormac being a university friend; Stephen – who’ll play the role of the great detective later, one senses a close bond between him and Abigail; Margaret, who had dated Benjamin in college but stayed good friends; and Barbara from Benjamin’s work – new to this group, but Benjamin invited her. The dinner and mystery all go well, all except Declan rise to the occasion with costumes befitting the Golden Age setting and then it’s off to bed for the eight friends after watching some nearby fireworks from the terrace. The next morning, however, only seven wake up… Benjamin is found dead in his bed, after Stephen forces the door open!
At this point the narrative splits into two threads, and part two begins with introducing us to the cast of characters, in true whodunnit style, including the ‘esteemed detective’, his sidekick, the butler, maid, the local policeman, doctor etc, and local landowners Lord and Lady Mallowan, all defined with tongue in cheek, plus our eight friends of whom ‘Benjamin is dead.’ It is said of the esteemed detective that:
…he will solve this case in fewer than thirty chapters. He is a little bit Poirot, a smidge of Holmes, and a surprising amount of Inspector French.
The latter being the detective in a long series of Golden Age mysteries by Freeman Wills Crofts (FWC) – who I really must read. (The British Library Crime Classics series have reprinted several by him.) Then we have three sets of rules reproduced from real publications: ‘Fair Play Rules’ by T S Eliot, Father (Archibald) Knox’s intro to The Best Detective stories of 1928-29, SS Van Dine’s ’20 rules for writing detective stories’.
Now, as Holmes would say, ‘The game’s afoot’, and the great detective, Auguste Bell arrives in his Daimler. Ruling out suicide, he begins to interrogate everyone, and this is where it can get a little repetitive, as he considers all the possibilities with each character for everyone is a suspect. Unlike many of our book group, I didn’t mind this at all, for each iteration was subtly different. Potential clues, or are they red herrings, abound, leading us up one path and then down another. As I am unfamiliar with Inspector French, Bell reminded me more of Benoit Blanc in the Knives Out movies – he may not be a Southern gentleman, but he has a glint in his eye that, like Blanc, makes you think he’s having fun. Whereas his sidekick, Sacker, ‘a Watson’, is a likeable idiot. In this thread, the references to Christie in particular, but also others including FWC abound – and rather than point them out I’ll leave you to chuckle when you spot one if you read this book.
This brings me to the other thread. This follows Abigail and her friends back in the present, trying to come to terms with Benjamin’s death. We get a feel for the real relationships between the group. Of course there are parallels between the two threads, but real life is far messier and less black and white than the imagined. We can really feel Abigail’s grief now she has been left totally on her own, and comes to a realisation that there is a lot she didn’t know about her brother.
We had more discussion on the mechanics of the whodunnit thread than anything else. Was it the murder mystery that Abigail had written playing out? Or was it a metaphor for her grief? Or was it just the author having fun with her characters? And then there’s the epilogue… but I shall leave you to make up your own minds about that.
Fair Play’s two threads make it a novel of opposites: witty and clever, then sad and moving. It’s an assured debut from the Irish author, and I shall look forward to reading more from her in due course.
Don’t just take my word for it, see also Susan’s Review, and Max at Shiny.
Source: Own copy. Picador hardback, 280 pages. Now in pbk, BUY at Amazon UK or Waterstones via my affiliate links.
