The book, Berendt's first, was published on January 10, 1994,[1] and follows the story of Jim Williams, an antiques dealer on trial for the killing of Danny Hansford.

The author took some liberties with his writing, including creating a relationship between Joe Odom and Nancy Hillis.

The character Serena Dawes was based on silent-film actress and heiress Helen Avis Drexel, while voodoo priestess Valerie Boles was the inspiration for Minerva.

The book was adapted for Clint Eastwood's 1997 film, with several characters' names changed to protect their privacy.

Berendt gave the finished manuscript to his agent, Lynn Nesbit, who enjoyed it but said it was "too local" and that no publisher would take a chance on it.

The central narrative concerns the shooting of Danny Hansford, a local male prostitute, characterized as "a good time not yet had by all" by Prentiss Crowe, a Savannah socialite.

The perpetrator was respected antiques dealer Jim Williams, who was also his employer and casual sexual partner.

[2] The book highlights many other notable Savannah residents, including The Lady Chablis, a local transgender woman, club performer, and entertainer.

Although the book's timeline is set to coincide with the entire saga of Jim Williams' arrest and four trials for murder, in reality Berendt did not meet Williams for the first time until March 1982[9] — six weeks after the millionaire had been convicted of murder and released pending appeal.

[2] The person represented by Serena Dawes (based on Helen Avis Drexel)[12] died in 1974, over twenty years before the book's release.

[13] Regarding the high number of eccentric characters in Savannah, Berendt's belief is that it is because gossip was so important during his time in the city.

[2] Although Bonaventure Cemetery is the focus in the book, "the garden of good and evil" refers principally to the cemetery off Congress Street in Beaufort, South Carolina,[15] where Dr. Louis Buzzard, the husband of Minerva, the folk-magic practitioner who figures in the story, is buried.

It is over his grave that Minerva performed the incantations to ensure a more successful result in the retrial for the case of Jim Williams.

)[16] The Bird Girl statue, designed both as art and as a birdseed holder, was originally located in Bonaventure Cemetery.

Owing to rising concerns about the integrity of the statue and the cemetery's privacy, Bird Girl was relocated in 1997 for display in Telfair Museums in Savannah.

[18] Joseph Marinelli, president of the Savannah Convention and Visitors Bureau, does not attribute the city's popularity growth entirely to Midnight, but that it had a significant impact.

"She kept everything hush-hush," explained Sonny Seiler, the Williams family attorney, "but now she lets tourists go through Mercer–Williams House.

He stated that Berendt's effort, along with that of Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game, was the most challenging to record: "Especially because all the characters in Midnight have the same damned Savannah accent, so you can't toss in a little North Country to help differentiate them!"