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.
About The Author
Mariah Fredericks was born and raised in New York City. She graduated from Vassar College with a degree in history. She enjoys reading and writing about dead people and how they got that way. She is the author of the Jane Prescott mystery series.
My Review
The author gives a story about what happened, using literary license, and we are gifted a real mystery.
This is a true story with real people, woven in a fictional story. Morris Markey, hears the shot and scream, and manages to get into the house and see the body of Joseph Elwell, he snoops around, and then writes a story.
Soon our Markey is rubbing elbows with the rich and famous, there are a lot of name drops, and with the author's help he spends a lot of time with Zelda Fitzgerald. We go to parties, and to cemeteries, looking for information.
What a great mystery we have, and facts do fall, and you will think the crime is solved, but be careful!
Page turner for sure!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher St. Martin's Press, and was not required to give a positive review.
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