In the Heat of the Night (novel)

In the Heat of the Night is a 1965 mystery novel by John Ball 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.

The novel is the basis of the 1967 award-winning film of the same name, directed by Norman Jewison and starring Sidney Poitier, as well as a subsequent television series. Ball would 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).