What’s in a name? Or more specifically, what’s in a title? In the case of my Hitchcock Sewell books, it’s been ‘Hearse’ for lo these several years. Hearse This and Hearse That. Hearses, Hearses Everywhere. Hearses, Foiled Again.

And there is no question that lots of people have had fun with the titles, not the least of whom has been me, myself, I. Plenty of folks have told me that they discovered the books simply by their eye having snagged on the title (ouch) while browsing in their local bookstore or library. And without question, the Name-The-Book contest that my publisher ran a few years ago for the third book (The Hearse Case Scenario) brought me dozens and dozens of truly outrageous – even frightening - hearse puns. Enough titles to last a lifetime.

But you know what? There can actually be too much of a good thing. Hard to believe, but it’s true. And before my hearse titles tilt any more too dangerously to the ludicrous and the distracting than they already have …and in so doing give too goofy an impression of the books themselves, why not head off in a different direction?

We don’t want the tail wagging the dog here, do we?

And so….BACKSTSTABBER. Personally, I kind of like it. Brief. Descriptive. Cryptic. But more to the point, I kind of like the book itself. All 355 pages of it. And that’s really the thing. Right?

Or if I had to put this all another way…hearse today, gone tomorrow.