Titles: get the readers hooked

In The Telegraph, John Sutherland explains how crime writers capture readers via “signature” titles — e.g. titles that all include colors, nursery rhymes, the letter D…

Why do authors of crime novels cultivate the signature title? Because they know how readers of crime novels operate. They’re addicts, poor saps. Like problem drinkers, they stick, loyally and insatiably, to their favourite tipple.

‘Make mine Mosley,’ they say, or ‘Siegel’, or ‘Harvey’. They want the same fix, time after time. ‘I’m here,’ the signature title shouts. ‘Another one by your old friend [fill in the blank]. Come buy, come buy.’ And we do.

Of course we want readers addicted. That’s why the pages of all my books are impregnated with nicotine.