The Girl in the Green Dress: A Mystery Featuring Zelda Fitzgerald
From the author of The Lindbergh Nanny comes an evocative mystery about the 1920 murder of the gambler Joseph Elwell, featuring New Yorker writer Morris Markey and Zelda Fitzgerald.
New York, 1920.
Zelda Fitzgerald is bored, bored, bored. Although she’s newly married to the hottest writer in America, and one half of the literary scene’s "it" couple, Zelda is at loose ends while Scott works on his next novel, The Beautiful and the Damned.
Meanwhile, Atlanta journalist Morris Markey has arrived in New York and is lost in every way possible. Recently returned from the war and without connections, he hovers at the edge of the city’s revels, unable to hear the secrets that might give him his first big story.
When notorious man-about-town Joseph Elwell is found shot through the head in his swanky townhouse, the fortunes the two southerners collide when they realize they were both among the last to see him alive. Zelda encountered Elwell at the scandalous Midnight Frolic revue on the night of his death, and Markey saw him just hours before with a ravishing mystery woman dressed in green. Markey has his story. Zelda has her next adventure.
As they investigate which of Elwell’s many lovers—or possibly an enraged husband—would have wanted the dapper society man dead, Zelda sweeps Markey into her New York, the heady, gaudy Jazz Age of excess and abandon, as the lost generation takes its first giddy steps into a decade-long spree. Everyone has come to do something, the more scandalous the better; Zelda is hungry for love and sensation, Markey desperate for success and recognition. As they each follow these ultimately dangerous desires, the pair close in on what really happened that night—and hunt for the elusive girl in the green dress who may hold the truth.
Based on the real story of the unsolved deaths of Joseph Elwell and New Yorker writer Morris Markey, Mariah Fredericks’s new novel is a glittering homage to the dawn of the Jazz Age, as well as a deft and searing portrait of the dark side of fame.
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Community Reviews
The Girl in the Green Dress is basically what happens when you throw Joseph Elwell’s locked-room murder, Zelda Fitzgerald’s party-girl energy, and Morris Markey’s wannabe-reporter angst into a cocktail shaker, then forget to add enough ice. It’s fizzy, but it goes flat halfway through.
First off, I love the premise—because who doesn’t want a Jazz Age murder mystery where everyone is either drunk on gin or drunk on their own ego? We’ve got locked rooms, glamorous parties, and Zelda Fitzgerald casually solving crimes like a flapper Nancy Drew. It’s all deliciously over the top. Unfortunately, the pacing sometimes felt like a speakeasy jazz band that couldn’t quite decide which song they were playing. One moment, you’re all in on the murder intrigue, the next, you’re slogging through Morris’s inner monologues, which is basically the literary equivalent of standing in line at the DMV.
Zelda, of course, steals every scene she’s in. She’s witty, messy, and very much the “Girl in the Green Dress” you actually want to follow around. Morris, bless his heart, is technically the protagonist, but he often comes across as the guy at the party who insists on telling you about his novel-in-progress while you’re just trying to enjoy your champagne.
The mystery itself? Fun but occasionally tangled, like pearls that you almost got unknotted before giving up and wearing anyway. It delivers the locked-room intrigue, just maybe not the gasp-out-loud twist you’d expect after all that buildup.
In short: If you want Zelda Fitzgerald dabbling in detective work and a murder mystery drenched in Jazz Age glamour, this book delivers. Just don’t be surprised if you occasionally feel like yelling at Morris to hand Zelda the typewriter and let her run the show.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this review copy!
First off, I love the premise—because who doesn’t want a Jazz Age murder mystery where everyone is either drunk on gin or drunk on their own ego? We’ve got locked rooms, glamorous parties, and Zelda Fitzgerald casually solving crimes like a flapper Nancy Drew. It’s all deliciously over the top. Unfortunately, the pacing sometimes felt like a speakeasy jazz band that couldn’t quite decide which song they were playing. One moment, you’re all in on the murder intrigue, the next, you’re slogging through Morris’s inner monologues, which is basically the literary equivalent of standing in line at the DMV.
Zelda, of course, steals every scene she’s in. She’s witty, messy, and very much the “Girl in the Green Dress” you actually want to follow around. Morris, bless his heart, is technically the protagonist, but he often comes across as the guy at the party who insists on telling you about his novel-in-progress while you’re just trying to enjoy your champagne.
The mystery itself? Fun but occasionally tangled, like pearls that you almost got unknotted before giving up and wearing anyway. It delivers the locked-room intrigue, just maybe not the gasp-out-loud twist you’d expect after all that buildup.
In short: If you want Zelda Fitzgerald dabbling in detective work and a murder mystery drenched in Jazz Age glamour, this book delivers. Just don’t be surprised if you occasionally feel like yelling at Morris to hand Zelda the typewriter and let her run the show.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this review copy!
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