In the Heat of the Night

Description

A fiftieth anniversary edition of the classic crime novel that inspired the Oscar-winning film starring Sidney Poitier A small southern town in the 1960s. A musician found dead on the highway. It's no surprise when white detectives arrest a black man for the murder. What is a surprise is that the black man - Virgil Tibbs - is himself a skilled homicide detective from California, whom inexperienced Chief Gillespie reluctantly recruits to help with the case. Faced with mounting local hostility and a police force that seems determined to see him fail, it isn't long before Tibbs - trained in karate and aikido - will have to fight not just for justice, but also for his own safety.

John Ball (1911-1988) was born in Schenectady, New York, and grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A part-time police officer in Los Angeles for a time, he wrote more than thirty novels including mysteries, war novels, and adventure stories; his Virgil Tibbs series remains his best-known work. Despite considerable pressure from his editor, Ball insisted on making Tibbs a black man, garnering him praise for progressive thinking and a keen understanding of racial prejudice.

Penguin has picked the perfect time to re-issue John Ball's brilliant debut story ... This is a psychologically astute examination of racial prejudice, an atmospheric depiction of the times and a brilliant, suspense-filled read ... If you haven't read it, do so * Crime Review * Compelling * The Times Literary Supplement *