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