Mystery & Crime Title Generator
Mystery readers like a title that turns out to be a clue. Tell the generator your detective, your town and your method of murder, and get titles from cozy puns to hardboiled two-word threats.
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Proof of Death
A baker finds the health inspector dead in her walk-in.
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Cast Off for Good
A knitting circle's treasurer vanishes along with the yarn fund.
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The Vicar Saw Nothing
A village vicar is the only witness, and he's lying.
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Chalk Outline, Rain Coming
A homicide detective works a street scene before the storm hits.
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Who Moved Mrs. Albright?
A body turns up in the wrong grave in a Vermont cemetery.
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Bones at Low Tide
A Norfolk birdwatcher spots a skeleton the sea keeps uncovering.
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Inspector Okafor Regrets
A Lincolnshire detective inspector investigates a farm-shop poisoning.
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Late Checkout
A hotel night auditor finds a guest who never left Room 9.
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Bundt to Kill
A church bake sale goes wrong when the judge tastes first.
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Ask the Dead Man's Dog
A retired vet and the only witness to a murder: a beagle.
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Ninety-Nine Stairs
A locked clock tower and a staircase with one step missing.
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Pale Ledger
A 1950s bookkeeper finds a dead man hidden in the accounts.
Naming Mystery & Crime books: what works
Mystery & Crime delves into puzzles and law, where each story unravels a web of intrigue, suspense, and criminal activity. This genre captivates readers with its complex plots, engaging detectives, and the thrill of the chase.
Titles in Mystery & Crime should create intrigue and suspense. They often involve elements like 'murder', 'case', or 'detective'. Think of titles like 'Murder on the Orient Express' or 'The Big Sleep'.
Pick your shelf: cozy, procedural or noir
Cozy titles pun on the amateur sleuth's hobby or business, as in Joanne Fluke's Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder. Police procedurals use wordplay too, but darker: Ian Rankin's first Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses, twists the name of a children's game. Noir prefers short, hard nouns. Readers spot the difference in a glance.
Build a series pattern readers can collect
Sue Grafton went through the alphabet from A Is for Alibi, and Ann Cleeves opened her Shetland books with colors: Raven Black, White Nights, Red Bones. A pattern turns each new book into the next item on a list. Pick one with enough room for the series you plan to write.
Hide a clue in plain sight
Agatha Christie's Why Didn't They Ask Evans? is a dying man's last words, and working out what they mean solves the case. A title that means one thing on page one and another at the end rewards the reader twice. Look for a phrase, object or line of dialogue your solution depends on.
Use 'murder' and 'death' on purpose
In cozies, 'murder', 'dead' and 'death' are welcome: they're the words readers type into search. In literary crime they can feel blunt, and an image or place often works better. Decide which reader you're courting before you reach for the obvious word.
Well-known Mystery & Crime titles
Titles that already work in this genre. Read them for shape and length: how many words, how much they give away, what they leave out.
| Title | Author | Published |
|---|---|---|
| Murder on the Orient Express | Agatha Christie | 1934 |
| The Big Sleep | Raymond Chandler | 1939 |
| The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Stieg Larsson | 2005 |
| Gone Girl | Gillian Flynn | 2012 |
| The Hound of the Baskervilles | Arthur Conan Doyle | 1902 |
| In Cold Blood | Truman Capote | 1966 |
| The Da Vinci Code | Dan Brown | 2003 |
| The Maltese Falcon | Dashiell Hammett | 1930 |
| The Silence of the Lambs | Thomas Harris | 1988 |
| And Then There Were None | Agatha Christie | 1939 |
| The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency | Alexander McCall Smith | 1998 |
| Rebecca | Daphne du Maurier | 1938 |
| Presumed Innocent | Scott Turow | 1987 |
| The Name of the Rose | Umberto Eco | 1980 |
| The Woman in White | Wilkie Collins | 1859 |
| The Godfather | Mario Puzo | 1969 |
| The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Arthur Conan Doyle | 1892 |
| The Lovely Bones | Alice Sebold | 2002 |
| The Secret History | Donna Tartt | 1992 |
| The Postman Always Rings Twice | James M. Cain | 1934 |
Thrillers & SuspenseA thriller title has one job: make a stranger in an airport pick up the book.
Historical FictionHistorical novels carry their period in the title: a trade, a house, a war, a city.
RomanceRomance readers decide in a second whether a book is their kind of love story.
Science Fiction and FantasyFantasy titles promise a world; science fiction titles promise an idea.
Movie, TV, and Literary Fan FictionFic titles follow their own rules: lyric fragments, quotes, puns and lowercase sentences.
Contemporary FictionContemporary fiction lives on the book club table, where titles are quieter and do more work.
Questions about Mystery & Crime titles
Should a cozy mystery title be a pun?
Usually, yes. Cozy readers expect it, and the pun tells them the hook (bakery, bookshop, knitting circle) before they read the blurb. Keep it easy to say, and make sure the series hook word appears in every title so the books group together in search.
Should the detective's name be in the title?
Rarely in the title itself. The detective's name usually goes on the series line, such as 'A Detective Inspector Okafor Mystery', which keeps the title free for the case. A name in the title works best when the detective is the hook, as in a debut that introduces an unusual sleuth.
How is a mystery title different from a thriller title?
Mystery titles point at a puzzle, a victim or a place where something already happened. Thriller titles point at a threat that is still coming. If your book is about who did it, title it like a mystery; if it's about whether someone can stop it, title it like a thriller.
A title deserves a book.
Put it on a cover, write the first chapter under it, and see if it holds.
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