Trash Talking

We often hear about book titles being changed during their transitions between Great Britain and the United States, or vice versa. Usually those alterations seem unnecessary and uninspired, the consequence of overthinking by publicity types. However, there’s occasionally a good reason for a title to be switched.

A case in point is Alafair Burke’s latest Detective Ellie Hatcher novel, Angel’s Tip. Just yesterday, Burke told members of the mystery readers’ listserv DorothyL that

my book, City of Fear, is out just this week in the UK. This is the second Ellie Hatcher book, which was published as Angel’s Tip in the United States in autumn. Apparently City of Fear is #2 at Tesco, which I’m told is a big supermarket chain in the UK. I’ve never seen one of my books in a supermarket in the U.S., so I’m taking that as good news.

Now, I don’t think too many Rap Sheet readers would argue with the idea that Angel’s Tip is a considerably more interesting title than City of Fear. In fact, the latter sounds like one of those cheesy televised “Movie of the Week” presentations from the 1970s. But as blogger and novelist Linda L. Richards pointed out, also on DorothyL, this name change is explained by an understanding of UK slang:

Oh that’s too funny! That’s the first time I’ve ever heard of a country change for a title that actually made sense to me. I did not think of it when I read the North American version of this wonderful book--because I had my U.S. English hat on while I read, of course--but in colloquial UK English, wouldn’t an Angel’s Tip be the place where an angel stashed her garbage?

Which raises the question of course, whether angels actually create any garbage. Or has Heaven perfected recycling by now?