GOOD EVENING, MR. TIBBS (1987) – THE FINAL VIRGIL TIBBS STORY

GOOD EVENING, MR. TIBBS – As promised, I recently obtained a copy of author John Ball’s final story featuring his iconic African American homicide detective Virgil Tibbs. Yes, THAT Virgil Tibbs, introduced in the 1965 novel and 1966 movie In the Heat of the Night.

Roughly ten days back I reviewed John Ball’s subsequent novels and short stories about the brilliant and coolly professional Virgil Tibbs. This final short story, Good Evening, Mr. Tibbs, followed the 1986 Tibbs novel Singapore.   

Unlike that novel, this tale depicts Virgil in his home territory of Pasadena, California. (It was only in the movies that Tibbs worked in Philadelphia and San Francisco.) In the middle of the night a woman’s dead body is found in the center of the street. Circumstances prompt a call to bring in Pasadena’s senior Homicide Detective – our man Virgil.

John Ball again masterfully depicts the detective’s sharp mind and attention to detail. Here in 2024 we’ve all gotten spoiled with countless police procedurals from recent years but back in 1987 Virgil Tibbs was way ahead of many fictional detectives of the era with his analysis of crime scenes.

As usual, Virgil’s mind is racing far ahead of those around him, but he doesn’t snap at his intellectual inferiors like many similar characters in crime fiction. In this particular case, Ball keeps readers guessing along with Virgil’s colleagues about what Tibbs is driving at with his approach.

Because the corpse is a Jane Doe, more entertainment comes from the expert way our hero whittles down the many, many missing persons reports on his way to determining the woman’s identity.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

Balladeer’s Blog

Now, the bad news. Good Evening, Mr. Tibbs sends this forever underrated fictional detective out on a very weak note. It turns out there was no murder after all, despite earlier indications otherwise, and the final deed of Virgil Tibbs is to let the dead woman’s husband know she died of natural causes.

Seriously. The entire mystery hinges on an erroneous assumption by another police officer involved in the case. Enjoy the early parts where Virgil gets to show off his skill and professionalism because the remainder of this short story is very disappointing.

For anyone who hasn’t, please check out the seven Virgil Tibbs novels and the other three short stories. If you’re on the fence, maybe my earlier reviews of his cases can help convince you. The Virgil Tibbs character was a brilliant detective who should have been featured as a rotating sleuth in 1970s telefilms just like detectives Columbo, Amy Prentiss, Banacek, McMillan and Wife, etc.  

FOR MY REVIEW OF DASHIELL HAMMETT’S FINAL NOVEL THE THIN MAN CLICK HERE.

NOTE: Good Evening, Mr. Tibbs was first published in the collection Murder California Style.