Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil / John Berendt - 4****

[Book Concierge]

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil – John Berendt
Audiobook read by Jeff Woodman.
4****

Berendt was a free-lance journalist when curiosity took him to Savannah and he began to write about the particularly insular culture of that Southern city. Then a murder happened, and his story really took off.

I read this sometime in the mid to late 1990s. My F2F book club discussed it in June 1997, and I know I had read it before then. Of course, that pre-dated my keeping track of my reads on Goodreads (or even in my handwritten book journal), and I have no notes of my reactions, but I do remember REALLY liking it. I also remember enjoying the movie (starring Kevin Spacey as millionaire murder suspect Jim Williams).

That being said, on re-reading it I’m not so keen about it. It held my interest, but I realize how long it takes to get to the murder and trial, and I found myself not so interested in the eccentric antics of the Savannah residents. That’s probably because I already knew what was coming and was anxious to get on with it. I’m still giving it 4 stars because I believe that was closer to my original reaction to the book.

Jeff Woodman does an adequate job on the audio. His pacing is good, but his Southern accents sounded really bad to me.

LINK to my review

[Tracy]

I liked this one, too. I read it after we visited the house in Savannah a few years ago. He did a good job with the southern atmosphere.