John Ball’s In the Heat of the Night

Novelist Ball’s racially charged 1965 whodunit features a brilliant black homicide detective from Southern California named Virgil Tibbs who’s forced by circumstance to help a racist white police chief solve a murder in a small Southern town. Fans who remember the 1968 Oscar-winning movie may be surprised by several elements of this version of the novel, including a murderer who doesn’t appear in either the screen version or the book itself—but that does not diminish this fast-paced, splendidly performed entertainment. Led by Ryan Vincent Anderson as Tibbs and James Morrison as the police chief, the ensemble, under the direction of Brian Kite, gives Ball’s story an engrossing audio presentation reminiscent of the days when radio drama was in its prime. More than just a satisfying detective story, the production effectively conveys the mood of simmering hostility that existed in smalltown America during the Civil Rights Movement. (Feb.)