The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is a ritual that, for many, kicks off the holiday season. Mariah Fredericks's Murder on 34th Street takes place in 1932, with the parade in its ninth year and establishing traditions that are still in play decades later. The event's intricate planning falls to Grace Verlander, assistant to the head of Macy's personnel department, and often the smartest person in the room. Grace fills her days leading up to Thanksgiving juggling the egos and demands of Macy's employees who want to be in the parade and those who don't, deciding where to place balloon animals and floats, and scouring Macy's departments for clothes and accessories for the participants to wear.
At least she's found her Santa Claus: Harry Gardner from children's shoes. But Harry begins receiving death threats before he even dons the red suit. A murder during the parade followed by two more deaths prompt Grace to investigate. Fredericks (The Girl in the Green Dress) utilizes Grace's natural organization skills to create a formidable amateur sleuth as Grace works to find the killer and save Macy's reputation as the place to shop.
Murder on 34th Street taps into New York City's culture during the 1930s, showing the Great Depression's impact on shopping and the iconic parade's beginnings. Fredericks's skill in rendering the historical era is especially notable. She delves into the behind-the-scenes planning of the early parade, simpler than the present-day version but still elaborate for its time. Grace has enough to worry about in Fredericks's engrossing historical thriller without planning Broadway musical interludes, too. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer