What's In A Title?

There’s been a discussion about titles of novels and do they help sell books? How do writers arrive at titles? Thus, I’ve been thinking about the titles of my novels.

The first novel I wrote, a Nick Bancroft mystery, was titled "August Is Murder."
My clever idea at the time was to write a series of Nick Bancroft mysteries, each named after a month. I’ve written four Nick Bancrofts since then and never did come up with a second month title.

As I remember, when starting the second one, I thought about working September into the title. It just didn’t work for me. Sex Is September? Too limiting. September Is Slaying or September Death. Maybe, but for some reason I decided against it. So the title of the novel became A Point of Murder. It involves a spike driven through the victim’s head.

Next came Death Sting. It involves the death of a young woman who is found in a farm field with her body covered by what turn out to be bee stings.
The next one, Murder by the Book, involves a young woman found murdered in an empty football stadium with a sex etiquette book in her naked lap.

I’ve just finished another Nick Bancroft and have named it And the Band Played On, stealing the title from the song involving a guy named Casey. An agent has informed me there is another published book with the same title. Should I change mine? I seem reluctant to do so. However I still have time. If a publisher buys it they will probably change the title anyway.

I’ve also written "Rain Day Lover" and "Danny Boy." Sweet little romances that leave Nick Bancroft out.

So, how does a person arrive at a title? In my case the titles come for the stories. Speaking of story, that’s mine for today.