We're leaving the Supreme Court aside for the time being, because I need your help. My new Bill Smith book is done, edited, well on its way into production. But it doesn't have a title. St. Martin's Press and I have been equally unable to put a name to the thing. Tom P. and Tom S., I know you've both tried, but nothing's grabbed us so far.

So: I'm giving youse all a summary of the plot, and I'm expecting brilliance. He or she who supplies the title we actually use will get an acknowledgement in the book and an inscribed copy of it. The two others that ring my bell the loudest will also get inscribed copies. Send your brilliant ideas as comments to this blog entry. (Titles can't be copyrighted, by the way, so once you send something in, I'm entitled, as it were, to use it. If you don't want that, don't send it.)

The plot: Bill Smith gets a phone call from someone who says he's kidnapped Lydia Chin and Bill has to find her or she's toast. The bad guy, whose identity Bill doesn't know for about half the book (and of course is someone from his past who feels Bill did him dirt) says they're playing a game, speaks in terms of a game clock, four quarters, overtime, etc. (See where I'm going with this?) The bad guy lets Bill speak to Lydia whenever he solves a new set of the clues the bad guy leaves, clues that send Bill racing to various parts of NYC. To work with him, Bill assembles a team -- a computer-hacker cousin of Lydia's, a thrill-addicted Goth girl, a pimp, a cop, a dog named Woof. It's a ticking-clock thriller in format, not a classic PI novel.

On your marks, get set, go. I await your short, pithy, and brilliant ideas.