In the world of cozy mysteries, the crime itself is rarely the hardest part to write. No, the real villain in the publishing process is often the title. It needs to be catchy, quirky, and signal what the genre is in just a few words. Crafting the perfect title for a book is, ironically, harder than plotting a death-by-scone in the village tearoom. People often ask how I come up with my titles. This post is going to crack the mystery wide open so you can see how I name my quintessentially British mysteries.
The Unwritten Rule: Pun or Perish
The cozy mystery genre has a set of unbreakable rules, and the title is rule number one. It must tell the reader, shortly and succinctly, that they’re about to embark on a lighthearted journey with an amateur sleuth. That title is the promise of quirky characters and a gentle reading experience (not a grisly police procedural). The pun is the perfect delivery system for this promise.
Cozy mysteries don’t have to include puns in the titles, and it is such hard work to find the right ones that sometimes I regret choosing to use them! But they’re so fun; they really convey the tone of the genre, and I personally love finding just the right one.
My Three Title Systems
To make the process manageable across different worlds, I have a different title system for my series. Each system ties the pun directly to the series’ unique setting, giving the reader an immediate sense of place.
1. The Heathervale Mysteries (The Rural Pun)
For these books, which are set in the English countryside, I anchor the titles in a rural theme. I take a common phrase, usually about something related to the countryside, like milk or chickens, then tweak one of the words to make a pun with a sinister twist to match the rural setting.
- Examples: The Slay of the Land (a twist on ‘The Lay of the Land’), Dying over Spilled Milk (a twist on ‘crying over spilled milk’), and Fresh out of Cluck (a pun on ‘fresh out of luck’).
2. The Slippery Spoon Mysteries (The Food Pun)
The settings for these books are entirely food-focused, which makes the titles much more playful—and more appetizing! I use food-related phrases and tweak them to fit the books’ greasy-spoon setting.
- Examples: From Bad to Wurst (a pun on ‘from bad to worse’ using a sausage), In Deep Truffle (a pun on ‘in deep trouble’), and Butter Late than Never (a pun on ‘better late than never’).
3. The Parchment Paper Mysteries (The Books and Baking Pun)
This system is the most challenging. Because the series is set in a tearoom in a village full of bookshops, the titles need to be more layered. I include a book title (or something along those lines) and a reference to food. Crucially, it also has to have a reference to danger or crime in order to convey that it’s a mystery. All of this is very tough to squeeze into a single, cohesive phrase!
- Examples: And Then There Were Scones (a tribute to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None), Lime and Punishment (a nod to Crime and Punishment), and The Catcher in the Pie (referencing The Catcher in the Rye).
Why the Pun is Harder Than the Book
In a mystery, you have thousands of words to hide a clue and reveal a culprit. For a title, you have about seven words to do the same amount of narrative heavy lifting. It must be unique, accessible, and appealing—all while signaling the setting, the crime, and the tone.
Fortunately, when I’ve been saying ‘I’ do the work to tweak these phrases into puns, I actually ask all my friends and family for suggestions. I have one friend who is particularly good, and if cozy mystery titling were a job, she’d be at the top of the profession. This collective brainstorming is often the only way to crack the code on a title that is truly original.
Ultimately, the perfect title contains the essence of the entire book, distilled into a single, sparkling, often groan-inducing phrase. It is the literary equivalent of that generously applied layer of clotted cream on a scone—it must be rich, satisfying, and absolutely essential to the experience. Getting it right is the secret ingredient to publishing a successful cozy mystery.