What is a red herring?
A red herring is a false clue. A good whodunnit is laced with several to throw the reader and the protagonist off the track.
Where did the term "red herring" originate?
In seventeenth century England anti-hunt people used an odorous, smoked(reddish in color) herring to draw the dogs off the scent of the fox.
What mystery have you read lately that had good red herrings in it?
4 comments:
I haven't read any mysterious lately. I don't remember what the title of the last mystery was that I read, but do remember it having some red herrings in it. I only remember thinking it was the one person but finding out at the end of the story it was the other person. Since I don't have much time to read lately, I haven't been reading any good mystery just some short stories. I will have to find me a good mystery story to read.
I've been reading more westerns than mysteries lately but since my dh won't let me read my kindle in the bathtub, I pulled out an Agatha Christie book and I'm reading that. I haven't noticed so much the red herrings as the great characterization. The last mystery I read that I was fooled Live Free or Die by Jessie Crockett.
I read a few of Agatha Christie books and I will agree with about the red herrings. I still can't think of which mystery books had the red herrings in them that I had read. I know that I read a few of Lilian Jackson Braun "The Cat Who..." mystery novels and few of Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen series.
I've read Lillian's but I'll have to take a look at Joanne's books.
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