A red herring is a misleading clue, character or detail that distracts attention from the real answer, most often used in mysteries and thrillers to keep readers guessing.
Where the term comes from
Merriam-Webster defines a red herring as something that distracts attention from the real issue, and its own example sentence is about a mystery plot full of them. The dictionary also gives the usual story of the phrase: a herring cured by salting and slow smoking turns dark and smells strongly, and the practice of drawing such a fish across a trail to confuse hunting dogs led to the figure of speech. It is a nice image for fiction. The reader is the dog, and the author drags something fragrant across the path.
An example
In a village mystery, the baker Anselm Ruck is found with muddy boots and a grudge against the victim, a mill owner. Readers see him lie about where he was that night. For most of the book he looks guilty. In the end he was visiting a clinic in the next town and hid it out of shame. The real culprit, the mill owner's quiet accountant, appeared in every chapter but never did anything suspicious on the page. Anselm's secret is believable and human, and that is why he works as a red herring. He is a person with a life, not a cardboard decoy.
Common mistakes
- Using decoys that have no reason to exist except to mislead. A good false suspect has motives and secrets of their own.
- Cheating. If a false clue depends on information the narrator hides, readers feel tricked rather than outwitted.
- Piling on so many that the real clue is lost, and the solution feels random.
- Forgetting to resolve them. Each false lead needs a clear moment where the reader learns what it really was.
How to check your manuscript
List your clues and mark each as true or false. For every false one, write the innocent explanation, and check that it is stated or implied by the time the book ends. Then read the true clues and make sure they are visible on the page, so a rereading shows the answer was fair. Pay attention to spacing: the false trail should be strongest in the middle and the true one should not be missing at the start. The mystery template lays out where clues and reveals usually fall, and the horror novel guide discusses misdirection in tense stories.