Thank you to Oline Cogdill for sharing her review of Mariah Fredericks’ mystery, The Girl in the Green Dress. There are copies on order in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4mYjQdq
Cogdill’s review first appeared in the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Book review: ‘Girl in the Green Dress’ mystery weaves in real characters including F. Scott Fitzgerald
‘The Girl in the Green Dress’ by Mariah Fredericks; Minotaur; 336 pages; $29
Mariah Fredericks takes another leap in the riveting “The Girl in the Green Dress,” showing her skill at creating engrossing historical mysteries depicting real people in the context of their era while pinpointing what that time frame was like.
Set in New York City during 1920, “The Girl in the Green Dress” evokes a city — and a country — changing. Women were bobbing their hair, wearing shorter dresses, drinking “bathtub gin.” Prohibition began during January of that year; women received the right to vote that August. The attraction of New York was obvious. “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,” says one character.
The historical companions for “The Girl in the Green Dress” are the charming gambler and womanizer Joseph Elwell, beginning journalist Morris Markey, and writer and socialites F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Fredericks wraps these real figures in a tight, suspenseful plot that captures their personalities.
Elwell’s skill at bridge made the game a fad among the wealthy and brought him riches along the way. His still-unsolved murder in his townhouse located in an up-and-coming area of Manhattan will be the career jump that fledgling journalist Morris needs. The story comes to Morris, who is asleep in his apartment when he hears a woman screaming across the street that her boss has been killed. The woman is Elwell’s housekeeper, who lets Morris in when he mentions he was attached to the Red Cross during WWI. Elwell is beyond help, but Morris uses the time to look around the townhouse, saying he is checking if the killer is still there. Naturally, he’s looking for background for his story.
Morris’ search gives him insight into the deceased, whom he had seen the night before with a woman wearing a dress of “green and silver shards, as if … showered in dollar bills.”
Morris knows that to properly report Elwell’s murder, and perhaps find his killer, he needs an entry into New York society. At 21 and newly arrived to New York from Virginia, Morris is still finding his way.
Enter the Fitzgeralds. Morris had briefly met F. Scott and thinks he might help. Instead, it’s Zelda who considers showing Morris around, and maybe finding a killer, to be an adventure. Zelda is definitely not the “girl” in green, but she might know her.
Fredericks does not sanitize the real people she writes about but delivers complete portraits that include their strengths and flaws, as she did in her terrific 2024 novel, “The Wharton Plot,” about author Edith Wharton. And the Fitzgeralds have a lot of flaws, which have been documented in numerous biographies.
The couple is exhausting to be around. They’ve been kicked out of several hotels because of their drinking, loud parties and excessive behavior. Yet both are infinitely charming and interesting. Morris can’t deny that F. Scott is gifted, which tends to make people forgive both for their antics. Morris’ comment that one had to go to the “edge” to appreciate the chaotic New York of the 1920s also applies to the Fitzgeralds: “Because the view is spectacular.” The novel also shows how Morris would become a respected journalist with a long career.
Fredericks illustrates the appeal of this era and people, showing why Fitzgerald’s work, especially “The Great Gatsby,” is having a revival.
“The Girl in the Green Dress” is the perfect marriage of character, era, setting and intriguing plot.