A non fiction book that reads partly like a travelogue and partly like a novel, it’s easy to see why Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil has become known as a true crime classic. I devoured this almost whole, and even managed to forget that it was about a crime until I got half way through and the deed occurred, immersed as I was in getting to know Savannah’s society.
Author John Berendt had visited Savannah and fallen in love, and so decided to rent a home there. Throwing himself into Savannah’s social whirl, the first half of the book sees us getting to know the scene and the people who inhabited it – a mostly very wealthy, proud, arrogant, eccentric and hugely prejudiced set, who all congratulate themselves for their condescension towards the one or two token minorities that have made it into their midst but who throw the N-word, J-word and F-word around with such happy abandon you wonder why said minorities would want anything to do with them. But Berendt does capture well the swirling mix of feuds, affairs, cons, and politics that lie just beneath the surface and drive the outcome of the trial that hits us in Part Two.
The focus of said trial is Jim Williams, a wealthy antiques dealer who is already something of an outsider in Savannah due to his being new money but grudgingly accepted due to the lavish parties he throws. Sharing his mansion with his young and volatile ‘handyman’ Danny Hanson, Savannah is excited and gossipy when Jim shoots Danny claiming self-defence, with Jim anticipating he’ll get away with it just like all the wealthy and well-connected people in town who’ve previously had their crimes swept under the carpet. But they’re rocked when the trial reveals that Jim and Danny were lovers – which is when the F word really starts getting flung about – and Jim soon finds out that Savannah’s justice system will be going a lot harder on him than he could have imagined.
Deeply interesting, even if I didn’t like any of the people in it (bar The Lady Chablis) I found the fact that Savannah and its inhabitants were just as much a vital part of the story and the trial’s outcome a fascinating aspect that doesn’t always make it into true crime books.
Excellently written, even if some of its moments seem a little too literary to be true, this is a fascinating true crime book that even non true crime fans could enjoy.