John Berendt

This might just be my favorite book ever. It has incredible, indescribable characters, a beautifully written story, and a little poetic justice. The characters are so brilliant on their own that you don't even need a real plot--I want another story that solely focuses on day-to-day life and mundane activities. Laugh-out-loud funny, which is interesting for a book about murder, but while the murder is the main plot, it almost seems like background noise for all of the eccentricities besides. show more Makes me want to visit Savannah, Georgia. show less

When I picked up this novel I thought I was picking up a hoodoo-flavoured mystery novel. Midnight in the Garden of good and evil is this, and it's also much more. The book consists of two parts, where the first reads as a travelogue, describing the author's semi-move to the town of Savannah, Georgia and various encounters with local eccentrics and characters. The second part details the investigation of- and subsequent courtroom battles concerning a scandalous upper class murder. The book is show more highly episodic, using different incidents and events in his description of savannah as well as the account of the crime investigation and court proceedings. This leaves me with the impression that this probably shouldn't be considered a definite account of the murder of Danny Hansford (uhm, spoiler I guess?), but rather a book trying to explain the particular circumstances an environment that, in a way, produced the crime.

The author doesn't stay to long with the actual details of the murder either, instead describing its effect on upper-class society, and indeed the city of Savannah in general. This way, the crime becomes the backdrop to his account of a fascinating part of the American south, rather than the other way around, and for me at least this works swimmingly well. As an account of a crime, this book might have been rather bland and unremarkable if it wasn't for its loving and deeply atmospheric descriptions of Savannah and it's inhabitants. As a reader, one cant help but long to see this city of with it's old mansions and lichen-covered oak trees that the author describes in such lovingly detail without allowing himself to let the pace drop or getting stuck in irrelevant details.

For all the descriptions of violence and social plotting and pettiness, the book is clearly a love letter to Savannah, and that's fine by me. show less

Truth is stranger than fiction.
I recently re-read this book after a number of years. It was as gripping as I remember. It can't be described as a novel because it isn't fiction, and would be condemned if ridiculous if it was. Instead it's the story of a real-life local murder told through the eyes of a young journalist who happened been living in Savannah (the town in which the event took place) at the time. He arrived for a short visit and ended up staying for eight years. The Savannah he show more beautifully and painstakingly describes is a self-contained world of old houses, old money, manners, decorum and an unassailable pecking order, were an awful lot can be overlooked just as long as it takes place behind closed doors and doesn't threaten to upset the social order. With each chapter we meet another of the townsfolk. In many ways the chapters are self-contained, introducing the reader to a new character, and sharing with us with their life story. In this way we meet the town's good, great, potential poisoners, drag queens, an habitually bankrupt attorney, voodoo practitioners, sex sirens and a man who walks an imaginary dog. As the author puts it: ‘In sealed off Savannah, its people flourished like hothouse plants tended by an indulgent gardener.’ It's worth reading just for this.
The book is written as though it takes place in real time and therefore it takes a while (just under half the book) for the murder to happen, but when it does, it takes centre stage, for a while at least.
The accused, a self-made, opinionated man, isn't particularly popular in the town, but that doesn't stop his party's from being the must go event of the social calendar (even after he's charged with murder), and an obsequious police officer from dousing the victim's blood from the carpet of the accused so it doesn't stain.
In Savannah at least, the murder quickly slips down the order of importance as its inhabitants go about their day-to-day lives, but its consequences are played out throughout the story. This being real-life, the repercussions are long felt.
If you haven't read this book, I can't recommend you do enough, particularly if you don't know the end of the story. Please read it to the bitter end – it gave me the heebie-jeebies!

Nina Jon is the author of the newly released Magpie Murders, a series of short murder mysteries with a Cluedo-esque element.
She is also the author of the Jane Hetherington's Adventures in Detection crime and mystery series, about private detective Jane Hetherington. show less

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a splendid piece of nonfiction. Part true crime, part Savannah guidebook, it reaches beyond both of these to become a captivating character study. John Berendt effortlessly captures the voices of both the people he meets and the city of Savannah, itself. And yet, though his impressions and experiences shape the narrative, he remains an understated presence in the book, offering what he sees and hears with minimal commentary, and leaving us, the show more readers, with the sense that it is we who are in fact meeting these people and this place. As their new acquaintances, moreover, we're free and welcome to come to our own conclusions about the quality of their characters, and so we, too, become drawn into the book's singular series of events. Deftly rendered with elegant and evocative prose, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a funny, insightful, and often touching glimpse into Savannah's charming, mysterious heart. show less