Book

In the Heat of the Night

by John Ball · first published 1965

In the Heat of the Night is a 1965 detective novel which won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel for author John Ball. The novel is the basis of the iconic 1967 Oscar-winning film of the same name starring Sidney Poitier, as well as a subsequent television series. Set in the community of Wells, South Carolina, the main character is a black police detective named Virgil Tibbs passing through the small town during a time of bigotry and the civil rights movement. Ball went on to feature Tibbs in the subsequent novels The Cool Cottontail (1966), Johnny Get Your Gun (1969), Five Pieces of Jade (1972), The Eyes of Buddha (1976), Then Came Violence (1980) and Singapore (1986).

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