No. 2 in the Virgil Tibbs detective series. Until I picked up one of the later entries a year or so ago, I had no idea there was a series about the amazing Mr. Tibbs of [In the Heat of the Night] fame. I enjoy him as a character very much, but I quibble a bit with the author's handling. In this outing, Virgil is at home in Pasadena, where he is called upon to investigate the death of an unidentified man whose body turns up in the pool at a nudist park. The man is appropriately naked, but not a member of the club, and not recognized by anyone. Furthermore, he is obviously a "cottontail", i.e. someone whose untanned nether region betrays him as not a nudist. This set-up has a lot of potential, and Ball (who was a nudist himself, I understand) makes the most of it, introducing us to a lovely normal American family who rarely put on clothes. After facing the unmitigated racism of the Deep South in [In the Heat of the Night], Virgil is on his home turf, wrestling to act natural in the presence of naked white women who aren't a bit bothered by his color or his gender---the irony is juicy indeed. Unfortunately most of the detecting goes on off the page, and the reader has no idea what Virgil is thinking, or even what leads he's following much of the time. He explains it all to us after the fact, so there's too much telling; I'd rather be shown. Still a worthwhile read for the social commentary. ( )

This is the second of John Ball's books featuring his most famous creation, Virgil Tibbs, the Black homicide investigator from Pasadena, California. Ball, who was a nudist, explores that life style when a body is found in the pool of a nudist resort. "Cottontail" is a person who covers their genitals when sunbathing, hence a white streak about the hips. "Cool" means "dead". The victims tan lines make it clear that he is not a nudist, but great lengths have been taken to obscure his identity while making sure that the body is found promptly: a seeming contradiction.

Ball not only spins an interesting tales about a well-developed character, he explores issues of race, as well as conformity and individuality. Virgil generally gets along with most people, but struggles to keep his calm when racism faces him again. At several points, characters must decide whether to stand by Virgil and face the anger or disgust of racists, or whether abandon him to avoid friction. First published in 1966, the book has held up well. And alas, the racial issues are still alive today.

The one weakness in the story is that Ball does not give all the clues to the reader. Since I read mysteries as novels, rather than attempting to solve them, this doesn't bother me, but may be annoying to some readers. At the end of the (first two books at least), Virgil assembles the cast to explain the solution.

A series that deserves to survive as a classic. ( )