Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' was written by the Esquire columnist John Berendt to record the true story of his first trip to Savannah, Ga. The odd characters he meets on his journey, from a scientist who walks around with flies attached to strings to the old woman who drinks martinis in the park, keep the story alive. It's easy to envision this secluded town with its inhabitants who get pleasure out of feeding a false history to tourists. The main theme focuses around the mysterious murder of one on the town's folk. It is entertaining to watch the town's folk deal with the unfolding investigation since most of their crime is covered up.

Though 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' is an intriguing novel solely because this quirky book is a true story, it has an extremely slow and somewhat boring start. In my opinion, this is because it doesn't catch reader interest until one-fourth of the way through. The major problem I had was in the beginning it introduced the characters separately and didn't really connect them. Each character was more interesting than the last, but it seemed that as soon as I really got into a character the book switched to someone new. It becomes very confusing and you end up re-reading, and trying to figure out which characters were where and how they knew each other.

Once you get past the first hundred pages the novel gets better. It toys with your morals a little because you're not sure whether you want the murderer to be proven innocent or guilty, and the ending was definitely a good one. 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' has had many rave reviews. This book is a best seller and has captivated a large audience all over the nation. Many Savannah natives are quoted in the book as finding the novel an excellent idea. The book was so popular in fact that it was made into a movie. Normally, I think those facts alone should mean it is worth the read, but for an everyday person looking for a quick and easy read this is not a book I would recommend.