The Van: A Tale of Terror

by John Dudley Ball

Dr. Flavia de la Torre, a sociologist, ends up as bait for 2 serial killers

434 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

John Dudley Ball writing as John Ball, was an American writer best known for mystery novels involving the African-American police detective Virgil Tibbs. He was introduced in the 1965 In the Heat of the Night where he solves a murder in a racist Southern small town. It won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America and was made into an Oscar-winning film of the same name starring Sidney Poitier; the film had two sequels, and spawned a television series several decades later, none of which were based on Ball's later Tibbs stories. He also wrote under the name John Ball Jr..

Ball was born in Schenectady, New York, grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and attended Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He wrote for a number of magazines and newspapers, including the Brooklyn Eagle. For a time he worked part-time as a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, was trained in martial arts, and was a nudist. In the mid 1980s, he was the book review columnist for Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine. Ball lived in Encino, California, and died there in 1988.

Reviews

[Sharonbrown3158 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow-what a creepy book! I couldn't help but wonder as I was reading it if the author wasn't a little too into rape and torture. It read like a Jaqualine Susanne combined with The Fan-just icky, icky, icky!!!

[Adrian Phoenix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely heartbreaking and gutwrenching. Haunting.

[Gray · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5. Written as if it was entirely non-fiction (which it’s not) with an off putting fixation on female anatomy. Very clearly written by a man with the crude way he describes women