"Corpse." It's not the sweetest word in the dictionary but it is very functional. The word describes quite clearly that the living thing is no more. A human being is no longer human but a corpse. Corpse and cadaver have the same meaning but corpse is the more descriptive term. Stiff, cold, very dead.
And that's why murder mystery authors adore the word 'corpse'. It has been incorporated into dozens and dozens of novels over the years. We found 101 book titles that included the word 'corpse' but there were many more.
Book titles that contain the word 'corpse' do not beat around the bush. We're not talking candidates for the Nobel Prize for Literature here - we're talking about a dead body that's turned up somewhere. Somebody has to unravel the clues, find the murderer and probably rescue a sharp-tongued broad while they are at it.
King of the corpse books has to be R.A.J. Walling - an English journalist and author who wrote the Philip Tolefree mysteries. The Corpse With the Blue Cravat, The Corpse with the Grimy Glove, The Corpse with the Blistered Hand - you get the picture.
You will find two major names on this list - John Dickson Carr (The Corpse in the Waxworks) and Erle Stanley Gardner (The Case of the Runaway Corpse) - but frankly it's hard to beat a book called The Corpse with Sticky Fingers although The Cockeyed Corpse does make me smile.
Enjoy the titles, enjoy the covers.
Corpses and more corpses
