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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil became such a cultural landmark that it's no wonder John Berendt waited 12 years to write a follow-up. Berendt's second book doesn't steer very far from his first in tone and style: he seems to have changed only the names and places. There's also less resolution in Falling Angels, which led to the love-it-or-hate-it reviews. Still, it entertains. Berendt has a keen eye for detail and an uncanny ability to insinuate himself into the upper reaches of society

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil became such a cultural landmark that it's no wonder John Berendt waited 12 years to write a follow-up. Berendt's second book doesn't steer very far from his first in tone and style: he seems to have changed only the names and places. There's also less resolution in Falling Angels, which led to the love-it-or-hate-it reviews. Still, it entertains. Berendt has a keen eye for detail and an uncanny ability to insinuate himself into the upper reaches of society, where he pulls back the veneer of gentility and dishes out delicious tales of greed, hate, envy, and conniving. But despite his considerable skills, Berendt doesn't bring Venice to life as he did Savannah, and his harshest critics found Falling Angels formulaic and disjointed.

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.