True Crime Title Generator
Titles for books on murders, frauds, cold cases and the investigators who wouldn't let go. Suggestions follow the shelf's habit of a stark main title and a subtitle that names the case, the place and the stakes.
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The Orchard Road Fire: A Family, an Insurance Policy and a Lie
A rural arson case that unraveled through paperwork
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Last Seen at the Laundromat
A 1980s disappearance reopened by a retired police dispatcher
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Who Was Driving the Blue Pontiac?
A cold-case hit-and-run solved through genetic genealogy
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Paper Widow
A woman who collected life insurance on three husbands
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Ledger: The Bookkeeper Who Stole Four Million from a Small Church
An embezzlement told through the parish's own accounts
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Season of Fires
A serial arsonist, a volunteer fire department and one dry summer
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Margaret, Twice Buried
An exhumation, a second autopsy and a verdict decades late
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“I Never Touched Her”
A false confession and the lawyers who overturned it
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Below the Spillway
A drowning ruled accidental until a fisherman found the boat
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Fingerprints on the Thermos
How one forgotten piece of evidence reopened a 1977 murder
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The Ranch Hand's Alibi
A sheepherder accused of murder in 1920s Wyoming
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Counterfeit County
A small-town print shop that flooded three states with fake bills
Naming True Crime books: what works
This genre explores real-life criminal cases, investigations, and the pursuit of justice. It's a genre that grips readers with stories of true crime and the human psyche.
Titles should intrigue and engage readers by conveying the suspense and intrigue of real-life criminal events.
Pair a stark title with a factual subtitle
The main title sets the mood and the subtitle states the case. David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon is haunting on its own, and the subtitle names the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI. Readers want to know which crime they're about to spend three hundred pages inside.
Center the victims, not only the killer
Readers have grown wary of books that turn murderers into celebrities. Hallie Rubenhold's The Five titled a Jack the Ripper book after the women he killed, and the subtitle promises their untold lives. A title about the victims signals a more careful book.
Use the place
Location roots a true crime title and helps local readers find it. Patrick Radden Keefe's Say Nothing takes a phrase that captures the Troubles, then its subtitle names murder, memory and Northern Ireland. A town, a road or a house can carry the whole story.
Skip the evil-and-darkness pile
Evil, Monster, Darkness and Blood appear on so many covers that they read as sensational. Restraint signals a serious, well-researched book. A plain noun from the case, an object or a job, is often more chilling.
Well-known True 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 |
|---|---|---|
| In Cold Blood | Truman Capote | 1966 |
| Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders | Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry | 1974 |
| The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America | Erik Larson | 2003 |
| The Stranger Beside Me | Ann Rule | 1980 |
| Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil | John Berendt | 1994 |
| The Executioner's Song | Norman Mailer | 1979 |
| I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer | Michelle McNamara | 2018 |
| Zodiac | Robert Graysmith | 1986 |
| The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez | Philip Carlo | 1996 |
| Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer - America's Deadliest Serial Murderer | Ann Rule | 2004 |
| The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder | Charles Graeber | 2013 |
| The Cases That Haunt Us: From Jack the Ripper to JonBenet Ramsey, the FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Sheds New Light on the Mysteries That Won't Go Away | John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker | 2000 |
| American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century | Maureen Callahan | 2019 |
| The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery | Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James | 2017 |
| People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo - and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up | Richard Lloyd Parry | 2011 |
| The Road Out of Hell: Sanford Clark and the True Story of the Wineville Murders | Anthony Flacco and Jerry Clark | 2009 |
| The Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three | Mara Leveritt | 2002 |
| The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy, Updated and Expanded Edition | Elizabeth Kendall | 2020 |
| Blind Eye: The Terrifying Story Of A Doctor Who Got Away With Murder | James B. Stewart | 1999 |
| The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer | Philip Carlo | 2006 |
Art, Architecture, & PhotographyPhotobooks, architecture monographs, criticism and how-to-draw manuals all share this shelf, and each one names itself differently.
Astrology, Divination & TarotName your tarot guide, birth-chart workbook or rune handbook.
Biographies & MemoirsFind a title for your memoir, or for the biography you've spent years researching, that sounds like a life and not a resume.
Business & InvestingBusiness books live or die on a short title and a subtitle that states the promise.
Cooking, Food & WineA cookbook title has to tell a hungry browser what's for dinner and whose kitchen they're in.
Crafts & HobbiesKnitters, quilters, potters and whittlers all scan the shelf for their own craft first.
Current Affairs & PoliticsPolitical books argue, report or confess, and the title has to say which.
Diet, Health, & FitnessName your training plan, healthy cookbook or movement guide with a title that says what the reader will actually do.
Education & ReferenceTextbooks, handbooks, dictionaries and teaching guides need titles that tell a student or teacher exactly what's inside.
EngineeringEngineering books range from bridge histories to circuit design manuals, and their titles split the same way.
HistoryHistory titles usually make a promise twice: once in a short title that sets a scene, and again in a subtitle that names the period and the stakes.
Home & GardenGardeners shop for their conditions and decorators shop for a feeling.
HumorA funny book's title is its first joke, and readers judge the whole book by it.
Music, Film, & Performing ArtsRock memoirs, film criticism, acting manuals and theater histories each borrow from the art they cover.
NatureNature books are usually about one bird, one shore, one forest, watched closely.
New Age & Alternative BeliefsTitles for books on energy work, manifestation, crystals, channeling and the inner life.
Parenting & FamilyParents shop for these books at 2 a.m.
PetsTitles for dog training manuals, cat behavior guides, rabbit and reptile care, and the memoir about the dog who changed everything.
PhilosophyTitles for books that ask how to live, what we owe each other, and whether we can know anything at all.
Politics & Political ScienceTitles for books on elections, institutions, policy fights and the ideas behind them.
ReligionTitles for devotionals, Bible studies, theology, faith memoirs and books on Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu practice.
Role Playing & Fantasy GamesTitles for core rulebooks, setting sourcebooks, adventure modules, game master advice and histories of the hobby.
ScienceTitles for popular science on genes, galaxies, microbes, the brain and the people who study them.
Computers & TechnologyTitles for programming guides, engineering handbooks, security books and histories of the industry.
Self-Help & RelationshipsTitles for books on habits, confidence, boundaries, dating, marriage and recovering from hard years.
Social SciencesTitles for books on why people behave, gather, trade and believe as they do.
SportsTitles for athlete memoirs, season-long team stories, coaching manuals and histories of the game.
Study Aids & Test PrepTitles for exam prep books, study guides, flashcard sets and revision workbooks.
TravelTitles for travel memoirs, walking books, road trips, food travel and practical guidebooks.
WeddingsTitles for wedding planners, budget guides, etiquette books, toast and vow helpers, and memoirs of a big day gone sideways.
Women's StudiesTitles for feminist essays, women's history, gender research and memoirs about women's work, bodies and power.
A plot, a first scene, a shelf
Questions about True Crime titles
Can I use a real person's name in a true crime title?
Names from public court records and news coverage are commonly used. The risk is stating something in the title or subtitle you can't support, such as calling someone a killer who was acquitted or never charged. Have a media lawyer review the title along with the manuscript.
Should the title reveal whether the case was solved?
It doesn't have to. Words like search, hunt or mystery in the subtitle tell readers the case may still be open, while solving or the capture of promise an ending. Be honest, because readers who expect a resolution and don't get one say so in reviews.
How do I title a book about fraud or white-collar crime?
Use the vocabulary of money, trust and lying instead of violence. John Carreyrou's Bad Blood, about Theranos, works because the phrase fits both the blood-testing company and the betrayal. The subtitle should name the company, the industry or the scheme.
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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