Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: Review

Posted on August 30, 2013 Updated on September 9, 2013

If you’re intimidated by the fact that this book is non-fiction, don’t be. This book reads more like a novel than a work of non-fiction.

The writing in this book decent, but I was a little bit disappointed. This book reads more like a travelogue (which is pretty much what it was really going to be) than a full-length non-fiction book. That being said, there were times when the authors writing was truly enjoyable and easy to read.

The plot in this book is decent as well, everything up until the murder and trial is basically just an introduction to the characters and the setting. The coverage of the murder and trial itself is, well, somewhat lacking. There’s a little bit about the murder and trial but the author doesn’t seem like they know how to do any investigative reporting. I would have liked a little bit more of an insiders view of the things that were going on (especially in regards to Jim… what an interesting character!)

That brings me to my next point, the characters! My goodness, is it even possible for a book to have weirder characters? And these were all real people!! I had a hard time believing, throughout the story, that the characters actually existed. It seemed as if the author didn’t even care about the normal people in Savannah, Georgia (or maybe there are no normal people there).

Bottom Line: I would give this book 8/10 stars. I honestly enjoyed reading it but there were a couple pieces (such as the writing) that appeared to be a little lacking.