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.