Editorial Content for The Girl in the Green Dress: A Mystery Featuring Zelda Fitzgerald
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Paraphrasing real-life writer Morris Markey, a mystery starts with a corpse and walks back the cat, padding flesh to the bones of the plot, so to speak. Markey is found on the floor of his Virginia home in 1950, dead from a suspicious gunshot wound.
The narration zooms to 1920 when 21-year-old Markey returns from France as a PTSD Red Cross stretcher-bearer in World War I. He settles into the heart of the Jazz Age. “When people talk about New York, they’re really talking about themselves being in New York, like the city’s a mirror they like to see themselves in.”
"THE GIRL IN THE GREEN DRESS is over-the-top brilliant, an iconic fact-based work of art. Since this is a mystery, an Anthony Award nomination is assured."
Approaching his single-room apartment past midnight, Markey spots wealthy bridge card sharp Joseph Elwell exiting a chauffeured canary-yellow roadster with a girl in “a dress of green and silver shards, as if she had been showered in dollar bills, with just enough clinging to her body to avoid arrest.”
The drop-jawed novice journalist wakes up the next morning to a housekeeper’s screams. Rushing across the street, he uses the ruse of searching for who shot Elwell to gather information for a breakthrough newspaper article. The loose-with-the-truth reporter tags the mysterious Girl in Green as Elwell’s murderer. A tyrant editor demands facts and more follow-up articles.
Seeking those who rubbed elbows with Elwell at the Ritz, there’s a chance encounter with Zelda Fitzgerald, America’s first flapper. She opens not just doors but the world of glitzy glamour for Markey. A host of wealthy socialites all knew Elwell and had a motive for murder. The amateur sleuth duo loosens tongues with bathtubs of gin, each Elwell acquaintance appearing in Markey’s articles without a byline. Ultimately, his fictional doppelgänger solves the mystery but does not publish the result.
The stunted conclusion returning to Markey’s 1950 death touts Mariah Fredericks’ genius. His demise is not resolved, as he is not alive to solve the mystery. F. Scott Fitzgerald could have written this intriguing tale had he not been a minor character in it. This is Zelda’s zest for life.
THE GIRL IN THE GREEN DRESS is over-the-top brilliant, an iconic fact-based work of art. Since this is a mystery, an Anthony Award nomination is assured.
An Author’s Note separates fact from fiction, which is essential in that readers may find themselves believing that this is a Fitzgerald biography. Fredericks asserts that real-life --- and real-death --- Markey and Elwell were the victims of unsolved gunshot crimes.
Teaser
New York, 1920. Although she’s newly married to the hottest writer in America, Zelda Fitzgerald 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, the fortunes of 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.
Promo
New York, 1920. Although she’s newly married to the hottest writer in America, Zelda Fitzgerald 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, the fortunes of 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.
About the Book
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 of 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’ 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.
Audiobook available, read by Marnye Young
