The Cool Cottontail

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.