The supermarket shelves are awash with crime fiction, but how much choice is out there?
The Titles: Usually short. Often containing one or more of these words: Blood, Dead, Die, Murder, Bones.
The Blurbs: Likely to include any three of the following: Discovery, Daughter, Distraught, Darkest, Dangerous, Destroying, Disastrous, Deadly.
The Plots: A body is found (or missing), a young woman, she’s been brutally murdered. A clue at the scene (poetic note/sketch/taunt) will connect the victim to a) an old case, or b) other killings.
Meanwhile, the protagonist has a secret that haunts to this day. A past that is now (due to a plot twist) putting him/her (or their offspring) in peril, unless the killer is stopped.
Readers like what they like. Publishers want what they can sell. The result:
The Fields of Death, Death Message, Play Dead, From the Dead, Better Dead, Book of the Dead, Call for the dead, Play Dead, Dead Wrong, Dead Man’s Footsteps, Dead Silent, Dead Kill, Dead Simple, Dead Like You, Darker than Death, Die Back, To Die For, Worth Dying For, Fear the Worst, Darkest Fear, Dark Fire, Die Trying, Beg To Die, Dying To Please, Skin and Bones, Playing with Bones, 206 Bones, A Thousand Bones, Skin and Bones, Lucky Bones, The Fever of the Bone, Bone Man’s Daughter, The Kills, The Killing Kind, Killing Floor, Killing a Stranger, Killer Instinct, The Killing Place, Postcard Killers, Faceless Killers, The Perfect Murder, Blue Murder, A Murder of Quality, The Murder Game, Mortal Remains, Grave Sight, Buried, In the Dark, Dark Blood, Blood Dancing, Bloodline, Blood from Stone, Blood Simple, Blood Diamond, Innocent Blood, True Blood, First Blood.
