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‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’ Still Beguiles Readers 30 Years On

It’s a personal step back in time for me

Paul Combs

Published in

Fanfare

4 min readOct 18, 2024

I believe that Savannah, Georgia (and Historic Downtown Savannah in particular) is the last civilized place in the world. I believed this during the three years I spent every weekend there while in the Army at nearby Ft. Stewart during the early 1990s and I believe it now. Re-reading John Berendt’s bestselling book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, about the city and its colorful residents on the 30th anniversary of its publication has only reinforced this belief.

Even if you’ve never read the 1994 book or seen the 1997 film adaptation, you’re probably aware of its existence, and it’s likely that you have at least seen the iconic book cover with the image of the Bird Girl statue. If you’re a reader who was around between 1994 and 1998, you would have surely noticed the fact that it remained on the New York Times Best-Sellers list for an astounding 216 weeks, making it the longest-running New York Times Best-Seller of all time.

On the surface, it sounds like any other true-crime book, with a murder and the subsequent trial (or in this case four trials, a record for a single defendant in Georgia). But this is no ordinary true-crime book, and the reason is summed up in the often-overlooked…

I saw the movie first. I loved it. My wife eventually traveled to Savannah because of the movie. Savannah is indeed an amazing town, even in August. The movie has a stellar cast and is worth the watch for sure.

Chablis is one of the best characters/people in film.

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Great article! I agree that Savannah is the real star of the book as well as the movie. We visit there at least once a year. If you enjoyed the book, you should take the tour of the Mercer House where it all occured.