The ending was totally unexpected (at least by me!). Sadly, many of the issues are still relevant today, 50 years after this was first published, such as poor relations between the police and black people. Tibbs is a great character; while I haven't read "In the Heat of the Night", I love the film with Sidney Poitiers and have seen it several times. I hadn't realized that Ball wrote a whole series around this character until I got this audiobook from the 2018 SYNC offerings - I will have to read more of them!

Dion Graham does a splendid narration in this audiobook edition. ( )

I think it is quite interesting to read this book published in 1969 about a black police officer in Pasadena. This book is the third book in a mystery series about an officer named Virgil Tibbs. Tibbs solves this mystery by good detective work. The story takes place sometime after the the Watts riots and during the civil unrest of the sixties with riots and peaceful protests. The story features a poor white nine year old recently moved to the area, another school mate, older and bullying that occurs that leads to bigger issues.There is a bit of preaching about gun safety and questions the right to bear arms. There is a great deal of race issues addressed. Some of the language used is definitely not politically correct for the current time. Another item in the book that I thought was unnecessary is the nude picture that is mentioned and when looking up information about the author, discovered that the author John Dudley Ball was a nudist but never the less another element of the book that was not politically correct and really did not need to be a part of the book. I enjoyed the book and felt it was over all a decent read.

The ending was totally unexpected (at least by me!). Sadly, many of the issues are still relevant today, 50 years after this was first published, such as poor relations between the police and black people. Tibbs is a great character; while I haven't read "In the Heat of the Night", I love the film with Sidney Poitiers and have seen it several times. I hadn't realized that Ball wrote a whole series around this character until I got this audiobook from the 2018 SYNC offerings - I will have to read more of them!

Dion Graham does a splendid narration in this audiobook edition. ( )

Infuriatingly boring!!!
It's like those $0.25 books you always find molding away at church tag sales. Mediocre author with a boring plot.
The main character is a nine year old boy with less personality than a cat turd. ( )