Need help with novel's title

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ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

As many of you know (and Jay now, after the Vent interview), I completed my first full-length novel over the summer. I'm still shopping it around, but the one thing that keeps bugging me is the title.

Currently, it's called "The Case of the Baleful Buzzard."

At first, I thought about calling each book in the series a "The Case of..." but I'm liking the idea less and less. Let me explain a bit about the series and the basic plot of this novel:

The series: I want to call it "The Armadillo Mysteries." The main character, Dilbert Pinkerton, is a mutant armadillo private detective. He digs for the truth. It's essentially superhero detective fiction, similar in vein to Simon R. Green's From the Nightside fantasy detective series and a few other inspirations. The adventures would be mostly self-contained with some small hints on future adventures thrown in or a background over-reaching plot (like the major crime boss Dill runs into).

The book: It started from a Facebook conversation I had once. I posted a joke that Superman couldn't be that country bumpkin Clark Kent. Friends joined in and started making similar jokes. One person said Bruce Wayne couldn't be Batman. I said "Batman's just a myth put on by the police department." And then I thought, "Huh, what if he was?" So that's basically the mystery: members of the police department in Nevermore Bay take turns dressing up as The Buzzard, have a Buzzard-symbol in the sky, have a Buzzardmobile, etc. And it's Dill's job in the novel to discover that mystery and then decide what to do about it.

Before I changed the title to "The Case of...", my working title was "The City of Smoke & Mirrors," which I'm thinking more and more of changing back to.

What do you creative folk think?
 
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drifter

drifter

Fun idea, but it also seems kind of forced.

For whatever it's worth, I like "The City of Smoke and Mirrors."
 
phil

phil

City of smoke and mirrors is good, but it might tip the reader to the deception too early. I don't know if that's something that is supposed to be a mystery or if it's revealed early enough to not matter that much.
 
LittleKagsin

LittleKagsin

I think 'A City of Smoke and Mirror's' will appeal to a wider audience of people, and it intrigues me instantly! (Love it!)

I hope to read it sometime, someday. :)
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Dill sniffs out that there's something off early in, but it's definitely a mystery. Though admittedly, it's more plot/action driven and the focal point is Dill himself.
 
drifter

drifter

I mean by coming up with the naming scheme first, it seems like you're going to end up shoehorning titles in. It could work, perhaps very well, but whenever I've tried something similar in the past, I end up reaching to make things fit, to my ultimate dissatisfaction.
 
Sara_2814

Sara_2814

I think "City of Smoke and Mirrors" is much better. It does sound very intriguing and I think it gives it a noir feeling (if that's what you're going for).
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

I dunno. "The Buzzard Flaps at Midnight" has a Noir ring to it, too...but I don't know how it would fly.

--Patrick
 
Adam

Adam

The Armadillo Enigmas: City of Smoke and Mirrors
The Armadillo Enigmas: Rince Twice for Evil
The Armadillo Enigmas: Excelsior, Sex Licorice
 
Silver Jelly

Silver Jelly

Armadillo and the City of Smoke and Mirrors?

(And the next novels can all be "Armadillo and the..." wich is a classic way to write titles)
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

If you want to get really obscure, you could riff on "when pigs fly" unless you think that would give away too much of the plot.

--Patrick
 
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