Stuck for a title for that crime novel you’re working on? Or perhaps you have no intentions whatsoever of writing a book, but find yourself preoccupied almost hourly with schemes and plans for murder, mayhem and wildly inventive violence. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a title to go along with your plotting?
(Oho! You thought I’d finished, did you not? That I’d got all caught up with writerly whining and ranting? That I’d just get bored after The Chick Lit Book Title Generator and The Literary Fiction Book Title Generator? But I didn’t get bored. Oh no.)
It’s The Crime Thriller Book Title Generator!
I apologise for making the first word of everybody’s title just “The”. But there are rules, you know. I can’t just go changing 30 years of genre titling rules purely for entertainment purposes.
So what’s mine, you say?! Oh, go on then, you’ve twisted my arm… I’ll tell you. It’s
The Mortal Fissure by Tara Sparling (that’s me)
Your turn! What’s yours, then? (Kudos for accompanying synopses 😉 )
**********
Tara Sparling writes 
Mine is “The Hollow Informant”, a contemporary thriller set in Belfast and Dublin.
“A case walked into my office, not my usual kind of case, more a wild goose chase as it turns out. But I was broke this week and didn’t have much else on my plate, so a wild goose would just have to do. The guy was called McGuffin…”
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That dastardly villian McGuffin! I sincerely hope you kill him off, Mel. Sounds great!
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I am using one of your Book titles to put in my book
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Lovely Eva, they’re free for the taking! Best of luck with it
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The Hollow Informant sounds like a Chuck Wendig horror novel to me. (But your McGuffin made me Guffaw.) 🙂
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Mines has the same title! I’ll try another with someone else’s name….
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Isn’t McGuffin a literary slang term? In fiction, a McGuffin is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself.
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Indeed it is, Hope, I think that’s the joke!
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The Voodoo Room–By Jove, Carruthers, I think that’s it! Now all I need is another hundred thousand words and I’m done.
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Could you not just voodoo them into the manuscript…?
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If only 😦
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The Shadow Informant/Path or The Dead Path depending on a variety of real, past and pen names. Mwahahaha! Shadows and Death – I’m feeling very goth all of a sudden lol
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Or seeing as you’ve a choice, what about The Dead Shadow Path? Shadow Path of Death? Path of Dead Shadows?? Oh, dear. I seem to have strayed into Fantasy territory here!!
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Plenty of criminal opps in Fantasy territory – especially on Westeros :-p
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The Hidden City…. hmmmm…… fantasy/ crime fusion… leatherclad traffic cop Trye Morse and his trusty Vespa, Harley Dangerwheel, time travel into Mordor, where Trye is mistaken for the last of the royal line of, er… royal detectives… and has to outwit the terrible Neck Romancer to solve the mystery of Something or Other from A Misty Mountain Far Away From Public Transport… Any takers?
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My God. That is brilliant. You have to write this IMMEDIATELY. Right after you patent the Neck Romancers. I am in awe of such genius. The supreme Otherness of a land without buses or trains. I am transported 😉
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The Neck Romancers are a hideous mixture of hard neck and no neck and are wreaking havoc throughout the land by romancing people with necks and then killing them. Tragic stuff! Trye has to stick his neck out pretty far to figure this one out, I can tell you…otherwise he’s in danger of getting it in the neck from the, eh… Neck Romancers! Yes, I’m on a head roll, here…
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Beam me up, Spotty.
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*Scotty
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I couldn’t sleep last night for dreams of the neck romancers… Now see what you did! Beam me up indeed 😉
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The Dead Kiss?
Hmmmm
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Definite bestseller- you must write it immediately!
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Okay, so The Hollow Kiss by M.J. Moores:
Imagine waking up after a hell of a night partying only to find out you’re the newest reaper in town and written in blood on your bedroom window is your first ‘to do’ list…
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I genuinely want to read that. Any chance you could knock it out in a couple of weeks?
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The Hollow Shot
And quite frankly, this is the perfect title for the story/book I’m working on right now. Like no kidding. All I’m going to say right now is Cynthia Rose, a 21 detective had a bullied past, her friend, known as “The Wolf” back then now suddenly disappears in present day. Now, there has been many mysterious murders, whom are later to be identified as Cynthia’s old bullies. The clues to discover who is the murderer is being revealed slowly as the story goes by.
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That’s a great title. I love The Hollow Shot. You’ll have to let us know when it’s out!
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The Salt Kiss! I might actually try to get a short story into collection no.2 with this title. It’s growing on my. But then I’ve also got Wishes Puddlestock tugging at me too… 🙂
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It’s growing on me… not on ‘my’ anything 🙂
#clarification
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Hahahaha now I can’t get that out of my head! Hahahaha!!
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Surely it doesn’t have to be an either/or situation…? I demand that you write all of them and publish them immediately! In triplicate!
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Coming in very late – but mine is The Assassin’s Room. I claim the best title.
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You do indeed. So, it’ll be out in Summer 2015 then? Give us the blurb 😀
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The manuscript entered the room – the dark room. The only light pulsing gently from the square box in the centre, and from the mad eyes of the man who sat behind it. There is no escape from – The Editor.
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Ooooooh! A literary twist! I smell prizes…
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The Hollow City??? Is this even a title????
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I might be biased, but it looks like a great crime thriller title to me! Very Lee Child.
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‘The Assassin’s Room’ is much better, but well, I love whining, so others shouldn’t take this seriously 😛
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The Last Shot. Mine would work…
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Great stuff. Looking forward to seeing it on the shelves in 2015!
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Hi
I going with “the hidden shot”
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“The Mortal Path”… That sounds too much like my far too ordinary life. LOL. A very fun post, Tara! Hugs.
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Thanks, Teagan! Glad you enjoyed it. Normal or not, you should still go and write The Mortal Path. Immediately. 😉
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‘The 9 Millimetre Kiss.’ Hmm, might be a different genre.
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Not if you call it The 9mm Kiss, David… (I had to be more explicit in the Generator but definite shortcut required). Just takes a bit of tweaking and you have a sure-fire bestseller!
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The Hidden Fissure. I’m thinking a fractured marriage that looks perfect from the outside until someone ends up dead. dun dun dun! Cool game. That was fun and it works to get ideas flowing.
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Great stuff! Love the sound of both the title, and the concept. When can I read it?!
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Reblogged this on K. McKinley's Blog and commented:
Thought this was really cool. Mine sounds more like a romance novel, The Stolen Kiss. My real name has a more Crime Thriller title feel, The Iron Kiss
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Oooh, definitely The Iron Kiss. Although you could get away with The Stolen Kiss, if the book’s cover was all done up in steely greys with broken locks… weapons… and possibly a smattering of blood. It’s all in the visuals 😉
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Could Broken City be a good name?
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Oh, I think so. But of course, I’m biased. Still, it does conjure up some great images. And Batman.
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The Assassin’s Street
Woah! That sounds cool for a spree killer type of thing. Thanks!
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You’re welcome 😉
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How fun! Mine is The Dead Room. I like it, actually.
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Great stuff! I’ll look forward to it in 2016.
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Reblogged this on Crime Fiction Writer Sue Coletta and commented:
Since I’m neck deep in revisions right now I thought I’d share a fun post with you. Funny, how you come across things at just the right time. Thank you, Tara! BTW, mine is The Dead Room. What’s your name translate to in crime thriller talk?
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Mine is The Voodoo Street. If you are familiar with my stories, it works.
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Oooh, lovely. I meant this to happen, of course. I designed it specifically to accommodate such genius. You don’t mind, do you?
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What a gal!! Thanks for your consideration.
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Hey, no problem. It’s a burden, but I bear it cheerfully.
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That’s a great list! Mine would be The Cypress Cradle. Does sound rather ominous, doesn’t it?
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Sounds bloody marvellous, even if we do say ourselves, Nicholas. I really like it. Even a whiff of True Detective off that 😀
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The Unpainted End. A tale of Neil Libor, a 16 year old clerk in Moose Creek in the year 2023. I never occurred to him that just three days after he got fired from his job, he would have to save all of his co-workers from a category 7 hurricane. He journeys through the depths of this hurricane to save the people he truly cares about, but he just doesn’t realize it yet.
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*it never occurred to him
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Excellent, Ian. Far better than the 200,000 word epic I had in mind about one decorator’s struggle with a gable wall…
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Yes ma’am!
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Hi,
I’m Janice from Reflections.
Do you know Crime-fiction writer Sue Coletta? She’s a friend.
I’m starting my family vacation but I wanted to thank you for visiting my site. I’m glad you enjoyed my StumbleUpon post.
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Hi, Janice! We’ve spoken before, actually, you kindly visited me here a while back. Sue also comments below – she got a great crime title out of the generator – one of my favourites. Thanks for your comment – enjoy your vacation!
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Thanks for the generator Tara. Mine is ‘The Body House’ Love it! Now I have to write a novel to suit the title grrrr
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All in the name of inspiration, right? It’s a great title, Gina- thanks for posting!
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The Assassin’s Kiss. I like that considerably more than the one I’d been contemplating: The Ass Kisser.
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The Ass Kisser does sound more corporate, Lindy, but I’m not sure there’s any thrill in it.
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Reblogged this on Julie Butler.
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The Dead City
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Tara, these are all AMAZING titles that someone could come up with for a Crime/Thriller book. I’m either going with The Voodoo Kiss or The Dead Prayer. It might take me a while to actually choose one of those titles, though. o_o
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Oooh. I recommend you take your time, find another five possibles, despair of ever choosing one, and blame me for ruining your life. You’re welcome!
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XD Well thanks. I decided I’m going to go with “The Voodoo Kiss.” If it’s good, I might make “The Dead Prayer” a sequel, who knows?
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Mine is “The Salt Street” and my mother is “The Voodoo Street”
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The one-eyed voodoo kiss. 😉
(There was no mention about number of words, was there?)
Be good and Merry Christmas. 🙂
And a happy Voodoo year too.
Brian
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There’s no crime in stealing an extra word, Brian! Feel free to kiss as many eyes as you like! Merry Christmas 😆
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Hi Tara mine is The Broken Path
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“The One-Eyed City”
Because only one dared to look… 🙂
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the 9 millimeter room,
the small town of muerte, new mexico seems in order you have your citizens your local buisness and as long as you don’t stray too far from your home after dark you’re safe, but if you do stay out too late you better pray he doesn’t find you, because if he does you won’t be seen again alive or whole…
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Dead Street, by Sh*ttinBricks (I cheated a bit and used my Wattpad name…), in which the inhabitants of a street in north wales are killed off one by one.
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I have two last names and this is the title that I got, Last Path Cradle. Should I remove the cradle part?
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and with my pen name it’s body cradle.
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Whichever you think sounds best, Onix – it’s just a bit of fun really!
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hmm “The Shadow Fissure”……
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mine is : The hidden prayer
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Mine was ‘The Nine-Millimeter Fissure” but I decided to change it to “The Hidden Room” because my story doesn’t have the use of guns! (well, it does, just not as the main murder weapon. it’s a knife.) I’ll just have to make up a pen name!
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Both approaches sound good to me Delilah. Best of luck!!
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Somehow I ended up with Body Kiss, I do not think that is a Crime title. XD!
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I got “The Shadow City” and I’m so surprised that this is actually suit with my story because the main point is to provoke about this one city that has been corrupted and full with bad people. My main character is Vigilante! I’ll use this, thank you so much!!
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