BATTLE ROYALE’s entire plot revolves upon Harry accidentally being given a chicken burger by his favourite burger chain instead of his normal order. It is 427 pages of Harry arguing with a teenaged disintereresred burger flipper, and losing.
It is the more character driven novel Jim has been going on about.
PAST TIME - Harry developes an interest in horology and it becomes his new hobby.
DEVIL’S KNIGHT - Harry enters into a chess match with an apprentice in a printers office, and is soundly beaten as he can never remember how the horsey thing moves.
Sadly all these pitches fell on his publishers deaf ears
The best way to probably get Jim to adopt a title is to bait the hook with a terrible pun, and noirish connotation just constantly using it isn’t going to work.
If the timetravel book is indeed the last of the regular files then FALL TIME is the punnish option as in full time, the main period of the game is is done and Harry is about to enter the penalty/injury time of the BAT. It’s another but different pun on full as in Fool Moon, and the world is about to take a Fall. Have it set in Autumn around Harry’s birthday then you have a triple pun.
Besides you just know big A Apocalypse is going to kick off on Harry’s birthday.
“It was my birthday, it was the end of the world, and there was no cake.”
The one thing guaranteed to make the Apocalypse worse.
