The Girl in the Green Dress: A Mystery Featuring Zelda Fitzgerald
A locked-room murder mystery in 1920 New York City brings together an unlikely and delightful sleuthing pair in Mariah Fredericks’ witty The Girl in the Green Dress.
Atlanta journalist Morris Markey is new to the Big Apple and keen to find his place in a city where the “lost generation” daily lose themselves in hedonistic abandon. Markey, based on the real-life writer, makes the rounds of speakeasy soirees populated with the leading literary lights, looking to gain recognition. Late one night, Markey observes his dapper neighbor Joseph Elwell and a gorgeous brunette in a shimmering green dress. The next morning, Elwell is dead—
shot through the forehead in his locked apartment. Markey has his next big story and begins tracking down those who might know the identity of the mysterious woman in green.
Also in the city are F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald: exuberant, newly married, and frequent sufferers of crushing hangovers. When Markey learns the couple saw Elwell at a club that night, he inquires at their decadent Ritz hotel suite. Zelda, bored out of her gourd while “Scott” writes his next masterpiece, decides to help Markey in his investigation, making “smart set” connections for the ill-at-ease Markey, who exhibits signs of shell shock from WWI.
Fredericks crafts a robust mystery and bookends it with a different one set in 1950 Virginia, both based on real life cases. Her superb characterizations and sparkling dialogue steal the show with laugh-out-loud exchanges between Zelda, Markey, and Scott—but she also creates moving and melancholic scenes revealing the inner demons Markey and Zelda struggle with, darkly portending their future.
With an intricate plot and unforeseen twists reflecting themes of corruption and wartime intrigue, The Girl in the Green Dress is a clever, spirited, and touching Jazz Age homage readers cannot miss.
