Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

A recent interesting post from Moira at Clothes in Books has got me thinking about book titles that are actually questions. It’s a bit unusual for a title to contain a question, but titles like that can pique readers’ interest. And because they’re not as common as other sorts of titles, they can capture readers’ attention, too. They can also give hints as to the story’s plot. Here are a few ‘question titles’ that occurred to me. I know you’ll think of more.

Dorothy L. Sayers’ Whose Body? is her first to feature Lord Peter Wimsey. In the novel, an architect called Alfred Thipps discovers a body in his bathtub. The police, as you might guess, suspect he’s the killer, but his employer, the Dowager Duchess of Denver, is sure he’s innocent. So, she asks her son, Lord Peter Wimsey, to see what he can do, and he agrees. At first, the police believe the dead man is financier Sir Ruben Levy, who was reported missing. But that turns out not to be the case. So now, Lord Peter has  to find out who  the dead man is as well as find out what happened to Sir Ruben. It’s a bit of a complex case, and it’s easy to see how the title gets at one of the main plot points.

In Agatha Christie’s N or M?, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford get mixed up in a case of espionage. World War II is raging, and Tommy is recruited to follow up on a clue left by a British agent. Two German spies, code-named M and N, have parachuted into England. One of them (or possibly both) can be found at the San Souci Hotel, but there’s no information about the agents are. All anyone can say is that one is male and one is female. There’s not much to go on, but Tommy goes to the San Souci, only to find that Tuppence is already there, posing as a Mrs. Blenkinsop. Together, the Beresfords follow up on everything they can, and put the pieces of the puzzle together. And we see how the central question of the plot is reflected in the title.

Catherine Aird’s Henrietta Who? takes place in the small town of Larking. One day, the local postman discovers the body of Grace Jenkins. Detective Inspector (DI) Sloan is called in, and he and his team contact Grace’s daughter, Henrietta, who’s away at university. She returns to Larking for  the funeral and to settle her mother’s affairs. To everyone’s shock, though, the pathologist reports that Grace Jenkins never had a baby. This means that Henrietta can’t be Grace’s biological daughter. If she’s not, though, then who is she? If Sloan is to find out who killed Grace Jenkins, he’s going to first have to find out her real history and then discover who Henrietta really is. There’s a clear connection in this novel between the title and one of the most important questions in the plot.

Kate Atkinson’s When Will There Be Good News? features private investigator Jackson Brodie. His life becomes enmeshed with those of Joanna Hunter, her baby son, and her babysitter, Reggie. When Joanna and the baby are abducted, Reggie alerts the police, who begin an investigation. Brodie gets involved after a train crash leaves him with temporary amnesia and identification belonging to a man called Andrew Decker. As it turns out, Decker is the man who killed Joanna’s parents and brother thirty years earlier, and he’s recently been released from prison. Could he have been stalking Joanna? Joanna’s husband has been involved in some dubious dealings. Could that be the reason for the abduction? When Brodie recovers his memory, he sets out to find the truth about what happened. And we learn that Brodie is more personally involved with this case than it seems on the surface.

There’s also Jon Spoelstra’s Who’s Killing All My Old Girlfriends? In it, we meet former Chicago journalist Charlie North, who now keeps a highly respected blog. He’s getting older, and he begins to wonder what his life would have been like had he made different choices. That includes his choice of marriage partner. He loved his wife, Joanna, and still misses her now that she has passed away. But he can’t help wondering how his life would have turned out if he’d married one of his former girlfriends. So, he decides to look up three with whom he’d had serious relationships. From the start, it doesn’t go well. When he meets up with one former girlfriend, Rhonda, she ends up throwing yogurt on him. Then a short time later, she is killed. It’s a shock, of course, but Charlie goes back to his search. Oddly enough, both of his other ex-girlfriends are also killed shortly after he meets up with them. With today’s quick communication and widespread information, it’s not long before the police begin to wonder what the connection might be between Charlie and the murders. He knows he’s innocent, but he’s going to have to clear his name if he’s to avoid prison. So, his central question is exactly the one in the title.

And that’s the thing about titles that are questions. They can help the reader get right to the central plot point of a story. They can also pique interest, offer clues, and keep the reader guessing. Which titles occur to you?

Thanks, Moira, for the inspiration! Now, folks, do treat yourself to a visit to Moira’s excellent blog. Fine reviews and discussions await you there.

*NOTE; The title of this post is a line from Billy Joel’s Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel).