Although the main plot of In the Heat of the Night by John Ball evolves around the murder of a well-known maestro in a small southern town, the many underlying human conflicts between the two main characters, Gillespie and Tibbs, create a subplot that becomes essential to the development of the story. The clash of ethnicity, personality and method of investigation between Gillespie and Tibbs becomes the essence of the story and creates an intense level of interest that compels the reader from beginning to end.

The ultimate conflict: white against black. Tibbs is an intelligent, colored homicide investigator from Pasadena, while Gillespie is a white, prejudice police chief who earns "respect" from his minors by controlling them with his loud voice and intimidating size. "They had no right to be smart" (106). The fact that Virgil is a colored man earning his pay as a reputable investigator truly...