Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
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50 free Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is the book that put modern Savannah on the map. John Berendt went south to write about a killing in one of the city's grandest homes and came back with a portrait of the whole community: its socialites and con men, its piano players and spell-casters, and a nightclub star who stole every scene she was in. This quiz covers the story from every side. There are questions on the shooting in the mansion and the long legal fight that followed, on the people Berendt met and the names he gave them, on how the book was written, sold and received, and on the 1997 film: who played whom, what was changed, and where in Savannah it was shot. A few questions follow the story's afterlife, from the famous cover to the stage. It is written for readers who loved the book, film fans who want to test their memory of the cast, and anyone planning a walk around Savannah's squares. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even when you guess.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Hollywood star, better known for westerns, directed the 1997 film of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?
Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood directed and produced the film, and personally talked Jim Williams's sister into letting him shoot inside the real Mercer House.
Q 02Which bronze statue of a child holding two bowls appears on the cover of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?
Bird Girl
Bird Girl stood almost unnoticed on a family grave plot for decades; once the cover made it famous, so many visitors came that the family had it removed.
Q 03Which Usual Suspects Oscar winner played Jim Williams in the film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?
Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey visited Savannah before the shoot so that he could pick up the local accent by listening to people talk.
Q 04In Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, performer The Lady Chablis gate-crashes which formal Savannah event?
A debutante ball
A debutante ball held each year by Savannah's African American society is the party she invites herself to. The Lady Chablis later played herself in the 1997 film.
Q 05Jim Williams of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil once draped what from a window to disrupt a film shoot?
A Nazi flag
A Nazi flag went up at Mercer House in 1979 after a film company working outside refused his request for a donation to the local humane society; the synagogue across the square complained.
Q 06Which former First Lady offered Jim Williams of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil $90,000 for a Fabergé box?
Jackie Onassis
Jackie Onassis made the offer on a visit to Mercer House in the early 1980s, and Williams turned her down even though he would have cleared $20,000 on the jade box.
Q 07Sonny Seiler, the defense lawyer in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, owned which line of college mascots?
Uga the bulldog
Uga the bulldog has been raised by the Seiler family since 1956, and Uga V appears in the 1997 film playing his own father.
Q 08Which British actor, then 24, played Jim Williams's victim in the film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?
Jude Law
Jude Law took the part of the young hustler as one of his first film roles, with the character renamed for the screen from the real Danny Hansford.
Q 09Which actor played reporter Kelso, the author's stand-in, in the 1997 film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?
John Cusack
John Cusack based the part on John Berendt himself, who took the cast on his own guided tour of Savannah.
Q 10In Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Jim Williams restores Savannah's old houses and makes his living as what?
An antiques dealer
An antiques dealer known internationally, Williams ran his restoration workshop from the basement of Mercer House and restored more than fifty houses.
Q 11Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil spent a record 216 weeks on which newspaper's best-seller list?
The New York Times
The New York Times list kept the book for more than four years, and the visitors it sent south lifted Savannah's hotel-tax revenue by about a quarter within two years.
Q 12Which Johnny Mercer standard does k.d. lang sing in the film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?
Skylark
Skylark, with music by Hoagy Carmichael, is heard as the film opens and again over the end credits.
Q 13Mercer House, the mansion in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, faces which of Savannah's historic squares?
Monterey
Monterey Square, named for an American victory in the Mexican War, is where filming began in 1997, and the house fills a whole block on its south-west side.
Q 21Jim Williams's fourth trial in the Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil case was moved from Savannah to which city?
Augusta
Augusta jurors acquitted him in May 1989, eight years after his arrest; being tried four times on one charge was a record for the state.
Q 22Danny Hansford, the victim in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, goes by which name in the 1997 film?
Billy Hanson
Billy Hanson was one of several new names: the film also renamed the district attorney and the neighbour whose dog annoys Williams, to put distance between the characters and real people.
Q 23In the film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Kelso comes to Savannah to cover a party for which magazine?
Town & Country
Q 14The cover statue of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil stood for decades in which Savannah cemetery?
Bonaventure
Bonaventure sits on a bluff above the Wilmington River, and songwriter Johnny Mercer is buried there.
Q 15Which Roman goddess's name does John Berendt give the root doctor in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?
Minerva
Minerva was the pseudonym for Valerie Boles, a real South Carolina root doctor who would not take money from anyone's hand in case the touch let them work a spell on her.
Q 16John Berendt followed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil with The City of Falling Angels, set in which city?
Venice
Venice drew Berendt after a 1996 fire destroyed its historic La Fenice opera house, and he built the book around the people he met while living there.
Q 17In Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, how does Jim Williams account for shooting Danny Hansford in his study?
Self-defense
Self-defense was his claim throughout: he said Hansford drew a pistol on him first. Prosecutors countered that Williams had rearranged the study to fit that story.
Q 18Building work on Mercer House, the mansion in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, was halted for years by what?
The Civil War
The Civil War stopped the job soon after it began in 1860; the house was finished around 1868 by a new owner, and nobody named Mercer ever lived in it.
Q 19Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was a 1995 finalist for which American honor in general nonfiction?
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize shortlist was a long way from the modest first printing of 25,000 copies; the book also won the Southern Book Award.
Q 20Which pianist in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was dubbed the Lady of 6,000 Songs by Johnny Mercer?
Emma Kelly
Emma Kelly earned the name when the songwriter tested her with title after title and reckoned she knew six thousand by heart; she plays herself in the 1997 film.
Town & Country sends him for a short piece on Jim Williams's Christmas party; in reality Berendt first met Williams in 1982 and moved south three years later.
Q 24Before Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt wrote a column for which men's magazine?
Esquire
Esquire ran his column from 1982 to 1994, and he had been an associate editor there in the 1960s before a spell editing New York magazine.
Q 25Which publisher won a four-way bidding war for the manuscript of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?
Random House
Random House printed the manuscript without changing a word, fourteen months after Berendt finished writing it.
Q 26Which studio released the 1997 film of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and built its courtroom in Burbank?
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. filmed the party scenes inside the real Mercer House, but Williams's sister barred the shooting scene, so the study was rebuilt on a California soundstage.
Q 27Sonny Seiler, Jim Williams's real lawyer, plays which part in the film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?
The judge
The judge was not the part he asked for: Seiler wanted to be the jury foreman who announces the verdict, until the film-makers talked him onto the bench.
Q 28Which Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil character is a piano-playing lawyer who covers bad checks with charm?
Joe Odom
Joe Odom throws parties at all hours, and in the 1997 film, where Paul Hipp plays him, the visiting reporter first finds him at the piano.
Q 29Why did John Berendt's first agent turn down the manuscript of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?
Too local
Too local, she told him, and no publisher would take a chance on it. A second agent had four major houses bidding within a week.
Q 30Which tune does Jim Williams blast on his organ in the film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?
Jeepers Creepers
Jeepers Creepers is his answer to a neighbour's barking dog: he plays the ballroom organ loudly enough to drown it out.