Four years on The New York Times bestseller list
John Berendt is a journalist and former editor of New York magazine. His first book, MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, was an international bestseller. He lives in New York.
Elegant and wicked . . . Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil might be the first true-crime book that makes the reader want to book a bed and breakfast for an extended weekend at the scene of the crime. - The New York Times Book ReviewThe best non-fiction novel since IN COLD BLOOD and a lot more entertaining - Edmund WhiteEnthralling - Robert Winder, IndependentBerendt - and the reader - are in travel-writer heaven . . . This is a book which leaves you amused, spooked and introduced to a new piece of America - Mark Lawson, Independent on SundayPerfect storytelling - wildly funny, occasionally alarming and utterly enthralling - Moira Shearer, Daily Telegraph
Elegant and wicked . . . Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil might be the first true-crime book that makes the reader want to book a bed and breakfast for an extended weekend at the scene of the crime. - The New York Times Book ReviewThe best non-fiction novel since IN COLD BLOOD and a lot more entertaining - Edmund WhiteEnthralling - Robert Winder, IndependentBerendt - and the reader - are in travel-writer heaven . . . This is a book which leaves you amused, spooked and introduced to a new piece of America - Mark Lawson, Independent on SundayPerfect storytelling - wildly funny, occasionally alarming and utterly enthralling - Moira Shearer, Daily Telegraph
It's difficult to categorize this book. On one level, it is a travelog, recounting former New York magazine editor Berendt's eight years in Savannah, Georgia, that beautifully preserved hothouse of the South where eccentric characters like black drag queen Lady Chablis and charming con man Joe Odom blossom in rich profusion. It is also a true crime tale, the saga of antiques dealer Jim Williams whose 1981 shooting of his sometime lover Danny Hansford in the historic Mercer House obsesses Savannah denizens; they watch as Williams endures four trials and is eventually acquitted, only to die of a heart attack a few months later, haunted (some say) by Hansford's vengeful ghost. Although nonfiction, Berendt's book reads like a novel (he admits he has taken ``certain storytelling liberties''), and this reviewer sometimes wondered where the truth ends and the fiction begins. Still, this entertaining book will appeal to many readers. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/93.-- Wilda Williams, ``Library Journal''
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