True Crime

5Ws Wednesday

My current reading selection is Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt.

I’m about halfway through it. This one has sat on my bookshelf for a very long time. I remember picking it up at the book store and thinking it was some literary classic, a la Charles Dickens or Shakespeare of something. The title does sort of lend itself to being some great work of fiction. There’s also a movie version of it, so that tracks with thinking it was something more than what it is.

But what it actually is, is a true crime book. In fact, in the description on the back it says: “At once as true-crime murder story and a hugely entertaining and deliciously perverse travelogue.” Interesting! I had already gotten about a chapter in when I googled how true this book is and I think I found something that said it’s 99% historically accurate. It’s definitely not boring, I’ll give it that.

I haven’t gotten to the crime part yet. But it made me wonder something…the W question I’m asking today…what is it with women and true crime podcasts, tv shows, and books? I probably shouldn’t ask this question with judgmental sarcasm because I actually haven’t listened or watched anything “true crime”. This book is my first foray into the genre. I do love all the jokes about how you shouldn’t mess with women because they watch enough true crime to know how to kill someone and make it look like an accident, or how to kill someone and dispose of the body without getting caught.

I suppose I should circle back to this topic once I actually finish the book. I’ll have to watch the movie version too. It came out in 1997 and was directed by Clint Eastwood. I love movies that he has directed. They’re so good!

Maybe I’ll pick a podcast to listen to afterwards, just to get the full true crime experience. Any of you have recommendations for a podcast to start with?

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