The 52 Book Club: 2026 Challenge discussion

25 -- Includes Red Herrings

A red herring is a literary device in which clues or false leads are used to distract from the true solution. This is most often found within the mystery or thriller genres and is used to keep the audience in suspense and prevent them from predicting the outcome.

Red herrings may be a physical clue for characters to discover (for example, a pair of gloves planted at the scene of a crime to throw off investigators), but they may also be pieces of information the author has planted to throw off readers.

According to MasterClass.com, “The journalist William Cobbett is credited with originating the term ‘red herring’ in an 1807 story. Cobbett criticized the press for prematurely reporting Napoleon’s defeat, and compared that act to using strong-smelling, smoked red herrings to distract dogs from another scent. Cobbett was accusing the press of intentionally using a fallacy to distract the public.”

In a very literal sense, a red herring is also “a herring cured by salting and slow smoking to a dark brown colour.” (Merriam-Webster) As a creative interpretation, you may choose a book in which a physical red herring makes an appearance within the story.



Here is our Goodreads List for this prompt

The Perfect Marriage

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

The Silent Patient

I am going with a author that I have not read before ~ First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

The Girl in the Train

Couldn't put this one down...

Maddy wrote: "Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn"

I picked this one as one of my three options for this prompt as well. I know they made it into a movie or series? So could do it as a
Read it/Watch it too.

Still Life by Louise Penny
Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica

Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hiller

I'm choosing Big Machine

I read The Silent Patient

I completed Still Life Deluxe Edition: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny for this prompt. I think that I enjoyed the life insights sprinkled throughout its pages just as much as I did the mystery itself.

Twelve by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Greenglass House by Kate Milford

I read for this entry

Murder by Cheesecake by Rachel Eskrom Courage 3.5 stars

I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

I read The Crucifix Killer by Chris Carter.

“Stranded” by Alex Kava is an amazing thriller with a red herring and several plot twists. This is a later book in the series so you might want to start with the first book. They all have red herrings.

Nantucket Five-Spot by Steven Axelrod. It was okay, but I won't be reading any more of the series.

I read Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Exes by by Leodora Darlington


finished 20Feb2026

Completed - Read Murder in a Cornish Teashop by Fliss Chester

I read Dead Man’s Folly as part of the Agatha Christie novel and was surprised that “red herring” was actually mentioned as a part of the Murder Hunt game in the novel. 4 stars

I read Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie, 3 Stars

I read "the Queens of Crime" by Marie Benedict , a great intro to some awesome lady detective authors

I read Gerald's Game by Stephen King.

His and hers by Alice Feeney

Read 10th Anniversary by James Patterson

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Picked my book for this prompt, The Ripper of Waterloo Road:The Murder of Eliza Grimwood in 1838 by Jan Bondeson. This book has a chapter titled 'Red Herrings'.

I have just finished Murder Houses of Edinburgh for a mystery case and put this and Victorian Murders at the top of a stack.

I used Cause of Death by Patricia Cornwell for this prompt.

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

COMPLETED: Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden

Just finished Dear Debbie!

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, and Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot short stories The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan, Triangle at Rhodes, The Adventure of the Western Star, and The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim.

Dear Debbie by Frieda McFadden.

Why not go to the master? I chose Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile.

I kept struggling with this prompt, but I finally found my book for this one.

Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World – A History of Civilization Through Trial and Error, Ice Age to Bronze Age



- This book includes a lot of 'red herrings'. Not only that, but the author uses the term in chapter 1 too, when he states, "Yet the focus on who came first is a red herring. ."

It's nice when the term is actually mentioned since it makes it easier to figure out what to look for.

The boyfriend

This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead

No place left to hide by Megan Lally

Reading The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

I read The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie. I gave it three stars.

I read The Fourth Princess by Janie Chang