In the Heat of the Night
by John Ballliterary work· published 1965
Shop for this title via the links below.
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).
Adaptations (1)
In the Heat of the Night was adapted into a 1967 film.
In the Heat of the Night1967 · film · 110 min · dir. Norman Jewison · IMDb ↗African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.
