John Dudley Ball Jr. (July 8, 1911 – October 15, 1988) was an American writer. He is best known for mystery novels involving police detective Virgil Tibbs. Tibbs was introduced in the 1965 novel In the Heat of the Night, which 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 and Rod Steiger.