Guest Post

Guest Chick: Maya Corrigan

Ellen here, happy to host Maya Corrigan, author of the always entertaining Five-Ingredient Mysteries. She’s talking about the genesis of her super fun cozy mystery titles. Take it away, Maya!

Thank you so much for hosting me, Ellen. I’m happy to be here visiting the Chicks. I’ve gotten to know several of you at mystery conventions and hope to meet all of you at future mystery gatherings.

What’s in a Title?

Coming up with a title that integrates well with a story is part of the publishing journey. We’ve all heard the expression “the tail wagging the dog.” The writer’s version of that phrase could be “the title wagging the tale.” After writing nine mysteries, I’ve learned that a title can shape a story and turn it in an expected direction. That happened with my new Five-Ingredient Mystery, A Parfait Crime.

Set in a small Chesapeake Bay town, my series features café manager Val and her energetic grandfather. They share a Victorian house, a love of food and cooking, and a talent for catching killers. Each book has five suspects, five clues, and Granddad’s five-ingredient recipes.

Like most titles of culinary mysteries, mine combine food and death or misdeeds, preferably in a pun. Scam Chowder, Crypt Suzette, Bake Offed are examples. I go through bouts of food-pun brainstorming and keep a list of possible titles. Once I have a broad outline of the story, I check the title list, hoping to find a good match for it. The food in the title is only rarely used to murder someone, and it isn’t in my latest book.   

The plot of my new mystery involves a diverse group of people, who wouldn’t normally cross paths even in a small town. I brought the victim, the suspects, and my sleuths together in rehearsals for a Readers Theater production of Agatha Christie’s play, The Mousetrap. FYI, my book contains no spoilers about the Christie play. When my characters take a break from rehearsing, their conversations revolve around solving the murder of a beloved cast member.

Choosing A Parfait Crime as the title affected my murder scenarios because of its similarity to “a perfect crime.” A crime is perfect if the killer gets away with it. The trick is to avoid police suspicion. Framing another person for a murder is one tactic to get off scot-free. Even better, if the killer can contrive to make the victim’s death look natural, accidental, or the result of suicide, the police have no reason to look for a murderer. It’s then up to the amateur sleuth to uncover the truth.

The killer in my book uses murder methods that have rarely, if ever, appeared in fiction. I discovered them in newspaper accounts of accidental deaths. To find out how my amateur sleuths snare the culprit in two perfect crimes, you’ll have to read A Parfait Crime.

READERS: How important is a title in attracting your interest in a book?

WRITERS: How do you come up with titles? Have you had any titles that wagged the tale? 

SYNOPSIS: The latest novel in Maya Corrigan’s Five-Ingredient Mysteries brings back café manager Val Deniston and her recipe columnist grandfather. At the site of a fatal blaze, Val’s boyfriend, a firefighter trainee, is shocked to learn the victim is known to him, a woman named Jane who belonged to the local Agatha Christie book club—and was rehearsing alongside Val’s grandfather for an upcoming Christie play being staged for charity. Just as shocking are the skeletal remains of a man found in the freezer. Who is he and who put him on ice?

After Val is chosen to replace Jane in the play, the cast gathers at their house to get to work—and enjoy Granddad’s five-ingredient parfaits—but all anyone can focus on is the bizarre real-life mystery. When it’s revealed that Jane’s death was due to something other than smoke inhalation, Val and Granddad retrace the victim’s final days. As they dig into her past life, their inquiry leads them to a fancy new spa in town—where they discover that Jane wasn’t the only one who had a skeleton in the cooler.

“Thanks to Val’s and her grandfather’s talent for exposing the truth, even a “perfect crime” will be uncovered…a satisfying read and a riveting murder mystery with a sweet ending.”– Library Journal.

Buy Link

BIO: Maya (Mary Ann) Corrigan lives in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., an easy drive from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the setting for her Five-Ingredient Mystery series. Before writing mysteries, she taught college English courses, including detective fiction and drama. When not reading and writing, she enjoys travel, trivia, cooking, and crosswords. Visit her website for (https://mayacorrigan.com) for book news, easy recipes, and mystery history and trivia.

22 thoughts on “Guest Chick: Maya Corrigan”

  1. A clever title will get me to pick up a book, but rarely influences the buy decision. My books are usually called “book X” until late when the theme comes to me. Except for the Homefront books. I’ve always had the titles for those from the start and yes, the title does reflect the “theme” of the book. Or I hope it does.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  2. I always have a title in mind as I write. I guess it assures me the book will soon be “real.” (I also try to envision a cover, just for fun.) For the first book in my Ladies series, the working title was Sweet Way to Go, but the publisher asked me to change it (I’m still a little sad about that). I’m having a good time with titles for my new Shamrock Sisters series, though. Book #1 (coming in Aug.) is titled The Jig is Up–and yup, the victim is an Irish dance star who quit to run her family’s dance school.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    2. Lisa, I envy you that you can envision your covers. That part eludes me! Except for my Mystery Writer’s series. There’s a different chair on each cover, and each plays a part in the story.

      Hi Maya! *waving* (WordPress doesn’t like me these days, so I have to tag along my comments on someone else’s. So weird.) Anyway … love your titles! I also love that you think about them ahead of time. I thought I was the only one who did that! In fact, I don’t start a series unless I can come up with 20 or so good ones. They’re all punny, they all speak to the theme or plot, and I definitely have a brainstorming list like yours. Glad to know I’m in good company! Congrats on all your success!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  4. Thanks for being here, Maya–and congrats on your book! Two perfect crimes in it? Wow!

    As for titles, I’ve had all the experiences: writing them as “book X,” getting titles rejected, and having titles approved. I’m currently on a roll since my three most recent titles came from my own imagination: Death By Bubble Tea, Hot Pot Murder, Ill-Fated Fortune (out 2/20/24).

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  5. When I was writing the proposal for the Catering Hall Mysteries, I literally thought of punny titles and built story blurbs around them – hence what may be the best title I ever come up with, LONG ISLAND ICED TINA!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. “The killer in my book uses murder methods that have rarely, if ever, appeared in fiction.” Now you’ve got me REALLY eager to read A PARFAIT CRIME, Maya!

    My Sally Solari titles were all difficult to come up with, as they needed to say not just “crime” and “food,” but all have a reference the human sense that the book involves. The title I’m most proud of is A MEASURE OF MURDER, which involves the sense of sound–through music. “Measure” as in measuring cup; and also “measure” as in the divisions in written musical scores (i.e., bars). Most folks probably never got the joke, but it pleases me no end.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment