Red herrings in crime fiction and thrillers: Designing false conclusions

Learn how to use red herrings to create believable false conclusions, deepen mystery structure, and keep readers confidently wrong at just the right moments.

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In this post ...

• What is a red herring?
• What’s the difference between a red herring and controlled misdirection?
  
• Writing red herrings: The golden rules
  
• What a red herring is not: Common misconceptions (with examples)
  

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What is a red herring?

A red herring is a storytelling device that introduces information that appears to support a plausible explanation, but ultimately leads to the wrong conclusion.
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Bear in mind that red herrings are not always limited to characters or their motives. Some writers construct them around how an entire fictional world works.

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What’s the difference between a red herring and controlled misdirection?

I like to separate red herrings from the idea of controlled misdirection because a red herring feels heavier.

While it does involve misdirection, it works by building a false but plausible explanatory path that steers the reader towards an incorrect conclusion, only to collapse later under the weight of the real solution. This not only delays the reader’s understanding, but also forces them to construct a competing narrative that appears to solve the mystery … until it doesn’t.
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Sometimes writers like to introduce other points of misdirection that are less weighty. These focus not on shaping the conclusion, but how information is interpreted in the moment. These are what I call ‘controlled misdirection’.

>> Find out more about controlled misdirection here.

Key distinction
At their core, the difference is this:

Controlled misdirection shapes how the reader interprets information, while red herrings construct a complete but ultimately false explanation.

In practice, both can appear alongside each other in crime fiction. They’re just operating slightly differently.

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Writing red herrings: The golden rules

All effective red herrings should be:

• believable: The false lead must feel like a genuinely viable explanation. It should align with genre expectations and established patterns of behaviour or evidence.

• relevant-seeming: A red herring should feel connected to the central mystery. If it feels random or unrelated, readers will dismiss it rather than engage with it.

• supported by surface evidence: There must be enough apparent justification to make the conclusion feel earned at the time. Coincidence alone won’t be convincing.

• coherent as a theory: The red herring should form a complete, internally consistent explanation, even if it’s ultimately wrong.

• integrated into the story’s logic: It should arise naturally from the world of the story rather than feel artificially inserted for the purpose of misleading the reader.

• timely: Introduce it early enough that it can function as a competing explanation, not as a late, shoehorned-in distraction from the real solution.

• emotionally plausible: Red herrings often work well when they tap into familiar motives like jealousy, greed, revenge, panic and so on.

• resolvable: Every red herring must eventually be dismantled or explained so that the reader understands exactly why it was misleading.​

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What a red herring is not: Common misconceptions

Here’s what a red herring is not ...

It’s not controlled misdirection (according to my framework)
Controlled misdirection uses true information that’s misinterpreted. A red herring may include this, but its defining feature is the construction of a complete but ultimately false explanation.

It’s not a twist
Twists are sudden, unexpected revelations that reshape a reader’s interpretation of earlier events and alter their understanding of the story. In short, they resolve uncertainty, whereas red herrings prolong it by sending the reader down the wrong path.

It’s not foreshadowing
Foreshadowing plants early clues or hints that later gain meaning, while a red herring builds a complete but false path that’s later exposed as untrue.

It’s not factual deception
A red herring does not mislead the reader about facts. Instead, it misleads them about the explanation those facts appear to support.
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It’s not withholding
Withholding is about timing – when information is revealed. A red herring is about what explanation the reader is encouraged to believe, not when information appears.

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How red herrings work: The mechanics

Here’s a simple framework for constructing effective red herrings, followed by a couple of examples of the mechanism in practice.

1. The setup: A plausible false path is introduced: A suspect, motive or explanation is presented with enough surface evidence to feel credible.
2. The reinforcement: The false theory gains support: Additional details reinforce the path, creating a coherent narrative.
3. The commitment: The reader adopts the theory: The explanation becomes emotionally and logically satisfying enough to feel ‘solved’.
4. The collapse: The truth invalidates the path: New information reveals the explanation cannot account for key facts.

Below are a couple of examples from two published novels. I’ve framed the analyses broadly so that they focus on the mechanisms rather than any plot details. However, if these books are on your reading list, perhaps come back to this article when you’ve devoured the novels. That way, you’ll enter those fictional worlds completely green.

These examples show how the same underlying mechanism can operate at different levels: worldbuilding in one case, and character psychology in another.

Example 1: The Bedlam Stacks, by Natasha Pulley 
Pulley’s novel is a smashing example of how a red herring can go beyond suspects and be structural, working on how the story’s world works.

The setup

• The story introduces a remote, unfamiliar setting with unusual environmental and cultural conditions that appear to follow an initially unfamiliar but still seemingly explainable logic. 

The reinforcement

• The reader (alongside the protagonist) forms a working explanation of how the environment, local phenomena and events are functioning based on incomplete early information.

The commitment

• The explanatory path feels convincing because it’s supported by consistent observable information, partial knowledge and familiar real-world assumptions.

The collapse

• As the story progresses, readers discover that they need to revise their initial understanding of earlier events and observations. 

Example 2: Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
Flynn’s novel is an excellent example of layered red herrings based around people and psychology.

The setup

• The story presents a missing-person case within a marriage, framed through competing accounts of events, behaviour and relationship history.

The reinforcement

• The reader forms shifting but coherent theories about what happened, with a particular focus on one character as the most likely cause of the central event.

The commitment

• Each explanatory path feels convincing at the time because it’s supported by selective evidence, emotionally persuasive testimony and apparently consistent behavioural patterns.

The collapse

• As new information is introduced, earlier theories are repeatedly invalidated or reframed, forcing the reader to abandon their previous conclusions in favour of new ones.

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Summing up

A strong red herring should distract the reader’s attention, but it must do so in a way that makes them believe in what is a complete and  convincing explanation of the mystery, even though it will ultimately prove false.
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The key is to stick to the golden rules so that readers are confidently wrong, but for the right reasons. 

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About Louise Harnby

Louise Harnby is a line editor, copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in working with crime, mystery, suspense and thriller writers.

She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.

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