I have been holding back from posting another entry, because the previous post
Spelling Grammar Words Language
was so popular - the number of comments is heading for 100, the sign of high interest.
A key feature is that the word 'fancy' does not appear in the post, but does appear in a response I made:
Uncle Matthew (ie Farve) says in The Pursuit of Love
'Fancy hearing one's wife talking about notepaper - the irritation!'
Dear blogfriend Roger Allen picked up on this use of 'fancy' and then so did everyone else, and the word has now been discussed in the comments more than I should think it ever has been, with every possible meaning given a going-over.
- including the romance of prostitution as a way out of poverty, as featured in a Bobbie Gentry song (top picture, which came from another fan, Andy Miller of Backlisted. We are a small select group).
As I said on social media #ReasonsILoveMyBlog: nothing could make me happier than finding a random shared hot topic this way. Thank you everybody. And you can still comment - on 'fancy', or on US/UK differences in particular reference to punctuation and quote marks, disinterested, Molesworth, and tricolonic anaphora. Fill your boots.
But I did think it was time I posted on another book, so here it is.
Fair play by Louise Hegarty
published 2025
A very unusual book, and one that is likely to
divide readers. For me it started off
very very well, but then… but I genuinely think others will like it and so I am giving it a cautious recommendation.
Louise Hegarty is an award-winning Irish writer, and this is her first novel. She is obviously a huge fan of detective fiction, which gets her a long way with me – though I was rather disappointed to read in an interview her saying** that 'In Agatha Christie books, people are dying everywhere and no one seems to be overly upset’. When people say things like this, I think ‘have they read any of the books at all?’ In The Hollow, in Five Little Pigs, in Sparkling Cyanide, in A Pocket Full of Rye… You could not think about these books and say no-one cared. ('Agatha' tab at the top of the homepage lists posts on all these books, and on everything else she wrote: Agatha )
** gerund, as featured in the comments on the previous post, though in this case the use of possessive is concealed, because 'her' can be either object or possessive.
Fair Play starts in modern times, 2022. Abigail arrives at an Airbnb: she is organizing a murder mystery weekend to celebrate her brother’s birthday, which happens also to be New Year’s Eve and Day. (That fact completely disappears from the book: no-one ever mentions it again, nothing is made of its being New Year at all.)
A group of friends collect, have a not-very-exciting party,
and go to bed (or to sleep it off on a sofa). The next morning Benjamin, Abigail’s
brother, doesn’t come down to breakfast: they end up breaking down the door and
they find him dead.
And now the book splits into alternating chunks. In one timeline a private detective turns up to investigate what might be a murder. He has a sidekick, he interviews everyone, and eventually he collects everyone together and says he has solved the murder. And then he isn’t so sure, and he gives another explanation and accuses another person. These sections are taking place in an alternate timeframe, never really specified, where Abigail and Benjamin are posh people who own the big house, employ servants and have family money. There are endless references to Golden Age detectives of the past, names and people. Those old-time lists of rules for such books – by eg Knox and van Dine – are reproduced.
Interspersed with this, there are sections of Abigail’s life after her brother’s death –
which the police think was suicide. She is miserable, and no-one understands
her grief.
The two lines get further and further apart: presumably to
show how cartoonish the detective is, and how real Abigail’s feelings.
I really wanted to like this book: I honestly thought I
would… but I lost patience with this. Her knowledge of GA fiction was detailed
but seemed lightweight, and I actively disliked Abigail.
Four of the main characters were called Abigail, Benjamin,
Cormac and Declan. I wasn't sure if this was another easter egg - alphabetical characters appear in a Georgette Heyer crime book too, as I point out here:
The mysterious gate-crasher in fancy dress...
I didn’t understand the relevance of the gardener, the
screwdriver, the maid, and many other items.
And the actual ending completely defeated me: I did not
understand what it was meant to show.
Oh dear. I don’t want to criticise it: she’s obviously a very talented writer, but I honestly couldn’t get what she was doing here. I would be very interested in reading other reviews from detective fiction fans: maybe they can explain what I’m missing.
I love books set in big Irish houses – it’s a topic we’ve covered many times on the blog eg here, with pictures.
Young people pics from a favourite resource,
Des res in quiet rural location | Linziestown House, Wexford… | Flickr
Hmm...Definitely doesn't sound like my sort of book, Moira, even with the references to detective fiction. Different timelines can work well, but it's not easy to do, and it doesn't look as though it was done well here. Hmm...Fancy that! I don't think I fancy this one, even if Abigail and Benjamin have a fancy house.
ReplyDeleteWell done for getting 3 x instances of Fancy in there! brava!
DeleteThis one doesn't tickle my fancy either! The (fantasy?) detective alternating with Abigail's story actually turns me off the book; I'm easily distracted and no doubt would be very confused in a very short time. (I'm trying to use semi-colons more often.) Will you continue to slip in little grammatical tips? (So we can say "I've never heard of that one" or "That's one of my pet peeves too".) I'm not consistent in my use of possessives with gerunds. Isn't "her" unique in that situation? Calling it "concealed" makes it sound a little sneaky!
ReplyDeleteI feel a bit bad as I don't like going at living authors who've put their all into a book. She is definitely an accomplished writer and I would try one more by her...
DeleteNice use of period after quotation marks there.
I'd have to be VERY sure of myslf before trying to advise others - I have just a few areas where I think I know what I am talking about! At a very young age I went to work at the BBC World Service which had very prescriptive rules, so I learned a lot - but some of that is out of date.
I think that 'her' is 'concealed' in this case because the possessive can sound a bit odd if you are not familiar with the rule, but her it is safe!
I think you may be right that it is unique, I am trying to think if there are any other possible examples...
To be fair to Louise Hegarty, many GA mysteries were all about the puzzle and didn't give a sense of the loss of a real person. I would say this applies more to the earlier years of the GA, and I would say that these kind of books are the ones that are not much read today. One much-used technique is to have the victim be a dreary domestic tyrant whose death is seen as a relief to all concerned and provides a wide field of suspects. Was Hegarty intending to write a serious whodunit, or was she parodying the genre, do you think?
ReplyDeleteNerys
But she did specify Agatha Christie in the interview.
DeleteI'm not clear what she was trying to do: that's why I had a problem with the book. I think the 'real' modern bits were meant to be very serious. So the change in tone was very marked.
I really want to be fair to her...
I read this several months and I thought it was clever but not very satisfying. I guessed the murderer (although good arguments were made for others, so I doubted myself at times). I think what I disliked was that the alternative scenarios became somewhat slapstick, which I hate. The review I originally read (not sure if the link will work) was so positive I put it on reserve at once. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/books/review/fair-play-sarah-hegarty.html
ReplyDeleteThanks for your views and the link - that's what I wanted, other views.
DeleteTo be fair, I also don't like ridiculous scenarios where one after another solution is offered - it can be done in a convincing way, but most aren't. I think it removes the idea of proper characters. I really don't like the Poisoned Chocolates Case, which I know is the summit of detective fiction for some - I can't see the point of equal alternate solutions. I don't like those multi-author ones, a chapter each, for the same reason. I want there to be a proper planned plot, with a solution that seems the only possibility when you reach it. This was very far from the case here.
And I'm still not understanding how the two strands fit together.
Classic multi-solution stories (and they don't have many solutions), like The Moonstone and Trent's Last Case, tend to criticise the idea of "amateur" detection for fun or as a challenge. Like rubbish-removal, it's a job best left to the professionals.
DeleteIs Abigail supposed to realise the difference between "reality" and the detective story-world in the course of the book, except that neither is "real" in the book?
I suppose crime writers divide into those whose amateur sleuth will be superior to buffoon policemen, and those whose police resent the useless interference.
DeletePart of my problem with the book was that the two Abigails seemed to have no connection.
Mrs Bradley may be indeed superior to most police, but she doesn't treat them as buffoons. She often says something like, "Leave that to the police, who can do it much better than I can". But then, I suppose Mitchell couldn't be expected to follow rules!
DeleteShe would always invent her own world!
DeleteGA detective fiction and a lot of today's mystery stories are set in an unreal world to begin with!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, beamed down from Planet Cozy as it might be
DeleteI always feel annoyed when an author who's mostly in the Cozy world suddenly decides to "get real"--or to tell readers to get real--in the middle of an improbable story about unlikely characters. Martha Grimes did this and it turned me off her books; I enjoyed Melrose Plant, but how unreal was he? And how unreal were those stories?? Some writers have the gift of making their unreal worlds very lifelike, which is fine, but IMO they should keep in mind that it's all an illusion! **End of rant.**
DeleteA very reasonable and relatable rant
DeleteThen there's Monica Dickens' The Fancy, where it refers to keeping rabbits or 'pigeon-fancying'. Meaning a hobby, I suppose, of a certain type.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere in Barbara Pym, I think it's where she's writing to Henry Harvey and his wife, she imagines the wife, Elsie, exclaiming 'Just fancy!' That is rather garbled (blame the heat); it's something like that.
The book sounds interesting, if flawed.
Yes, I mentioned it in the comments, and did a post a while back
Deletehttps://clothesinbooks.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-fancy-by-monica-dicken.html
'Just fancy!' sounds like something put into others' mouths as a subtle putdown, which I can easily imagine BP doing about Henry's wife (however much she pretended to love her as a sister)
'Just fancy that' is a subtly different version - I always associate it with Private Eye.
That's a very good description of the Fair Play book
There's a 1950's movie called Fancy Pants, with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball. It's apparently about a phony butler and a "wildcat gal" in the Old West. I've just rented it, in a mood for silliness.
DeleteWe're all waitng to hear...
DeleteVery much a phrase in use in my childhood
Oh, it was silly. Ball made a very good "wildcat gal"! The film was made a few years before she started her television career, and I did see a little of Lucy Ricardo in her (although her character was a lot tougher than Lucy). It looked as if she did her own pratfalls. She got a truly amazing hairdo at one point and had a stunning, if gaudy, wardrobe. Hope was Hope, doing his wisecracking-coward routine as a ham actor (fancy!) pretending to be an Earl and a butler (alternately). He had some scenes stolen from him by an adorable dachshund....The ending was a little odd, with a very unlikely escape.
DeleteWell it sounds good fun, even if silly. Is Bob Hope someone whose reputation isn't surviving well?
DeleteI don't really know how Bob Hope is viewed today. I suppose some of his humor is "of its time" and this movie had some of that humor, although it was more the script than Hope himself. Some of his jokes had a kind of leering quality that wouldn't go down well today with many women viewers, at least. He was good at slapstick. For a smart guy, he was good at playing a little dumb! The Hope and Crosby movies showed him at his best, I think, although The Lemon Drop Kid is a sentimental fave of mine, spoiled a little by learning that his leading lady was his real-life mistress! Did you know that he was English? (His real name was Leslie Townes Hope.) His family moved to the US when he was quite young. I read in IMDB that he later received an honorary knighthood. And of course he was famous for going to war zones to entertain the troops in three US wars.
DeleteLemon Drop Kid is another Runyon story isn't it? I remember enjoying several of his films when I was young - Paleface, Son of Paleface, Monsieur Beaucaire, but no idea what I would make of them now. I found them very very funny then...
DeleteLemon Drop Kid is very loosely based on a Runyon story, In fact, "suggested by" would be closer to the truth. The actual story is sad. The Paleface movies were some of his best after the ones with Crosby. IIRC there was a zany scene with a dentist and laughing gas?
DeleteWhat I remember is their singing (note gerund) Buttons and Bows which is a great song
DeleteIs "Fair Play" intended as a reference to "foul play"?
ReplyDeletegood point, not sure. It hadn't occurred to me, I just thought it was claiming to be a fair play mysery
DeleteTotally OT but I have to say "Happy Birthday to us(US)!" 250 years and still standing (if just barely). No doubt that seems like nothing to Old World citizens, but we've had close calls and may yet go under, so we're making it a big deal!
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday indeed - whatever happens in politics, Americans are our friends and have only our good wishes
DeleteIn Britain, the feline equivalent of the Kennel Club is called the “Governing Council of the Cat Fancy” ! I believe it was founded on 1910…
ReplyDeleteIndeed - as in one of the 68 mentions of Fancy in the original comments
Delete.... but another mention always welcome!
DeleteDid anyone mention "French fancy cakes" or "fancy dans"?
ReplyDeleteFrench fancies! The English version of them couldn't be less French by any normal standards...
DeleteIs 'fancy dan' a dandyish chap?
A friend emailed me to mention Fancy Smith - in that line - who was a young dishy policeman in the police TV series Z Cars. Played by a very young Brian Blessed. Apparently 'Fancy' was a comment on his manner, but also based on his first name's being Francis.
The first time I heard "fancy dan" was about forty years ago. After a bad defeat, the Liverpool FC manager said his team were a load of "fancy dans and fly by nights". I just checked and it seems to be originally American slang for a flashy but ineffective player.
DeleteOh interesting - so it was meant to describe a sportsman particularly?
DeleteWhich Liverpool manager I wonder? The 80s had several of them...
I bet the team just loved him after that remark....did he "move on" after that game?
DeleteThey were a hugely successful team during the 1980s (and since to be fair) - I'm guessing if you keep on winning trophies you can stay on!
DeleteM-W says that the adjective "fancy dan" has been around since 1938, and the noun from about five years later. It started out in US sportswriting, referring to a player who was showy and flamboyant but not necessarily skilled, with a fondness for spectacular moves. (We'd also say "hot dog" to describe such a person). Eventually it spread out of sports, you could even apply it to presidents IMO.
DeleteInteresting thank you, I like the idea of its being about a certain kind of sportsperson. We can all recognize that in certain people...
DeleteBob Paisley was secure but three of his stars didn't play many more games so we knew who he meant.
DeleteOh please name them. (limited interest to everyone else, I do see, but i hold fast to my team & would like to know)
DeleteEarly in 1981/2. The game was at Ipswich. Johnson and Ray Kennedy were soon replaced by Whelan and Rush. McDermott lasted longer but not till the end of the season.
DeleteI was working as a radio reporter in Liverpool at that date, I should have remembered that!
Delete