Honestly, if you can make me nostalgic about the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in MAY, you’re doing something right.🎈🦃✨
I feel really lucky to have been one of the first readers of Murder on 34th St. by Mariah Fredericks, coming October 6, 2026, because this book absolutely nails that warm, vintage New York holiday atmosphere. Set during the 1933 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the story follows Grace, assistant to Macy’s head of HR… although “assistant” hardly covers it because this woman is basically running half the building behind the scenes. 😂 I really connected with her and kept thinking about how many women in the 1930s were doing enormous amounts of invisible labor while rarely getting the recognition they deserved.
If you love old Manhattan settings, department store nostalgia, cozy mysteries, and behind-the-scenes holiday magic, there’s a lot to enjoy here. 🎄🗽 There are former NYPD officers, a Santa Claus performer, Macy’s employees with secrets, and plenty of suspects floating around the parade preparations. The descriptions of Macy’s itself were honestly one of my favorite parts — the employee entrances, the operations, the parade prep — it all felt incredibly immersive, like the author really did her homework and interviewed people connected to the store’s history.
I will say this leans more historical fiction than pulse-pounding mystery for me. I also think the book occasionally romanticizes the era a bit more than I personally would have liked, especially considering how difficult life was for many people in the 1930s. And because I wasn’t deeply emotionally invested in the murder victim, the mystery itself didn’t fully hook me emotionally. But as a cozy, nostalgic holiday read? It absolutely worked for me. 🎈
⭐️ 3.5/5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!
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