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well a good mystery needs plenty of ingredients, an interesting setting a

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cast of compelling characters and one spicy central problem to solve. but to [campfire stew pot]

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make a truly delicious mystery we need to toss some fish into the pot. and yep

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we need a bunch of red herrings .yeah just the herrings, though no one wants

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anchovies in their mystery .so red herring is a false clue that's meant to

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mislead or distract the reader. the term red herring is believed to come from a [definition on screen]

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news story that English journalist william Cobbett

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wrote in the early 19th century. he wrote that as a boy he would make false trails

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with red herrings to train hunting dogs purposely misleading them from the real [dog walks through trees]

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trail. pretty good idea unless your dogs really hate herring. well most red

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herrings you'll see in mystery stories are a lot less fishy than Cabot's trails.

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a popular type of red herring is misleading clues that point to the wrong

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suspect. so if a story is about the mystery of who stole an expensive jar of cookies,

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the author might include some red herrings about how jimmy is a compulsive [cookies on a counter]

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cookie eater and has a long history of cookie related thefts, even if in this

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case Jimmy is completely innocent. well just ignore the cookie crumbs around his

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mouth. there people another popular kind of red herring well misleading clues [kid with cookie on his face]

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that point away from the real suspect. so in our cookie jar caper it might turn

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out that genie is the master thief. however to throw readers off the scent

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the author might include details like Jamie is allergic to all kinds of [dog walks on beach]

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cookies making her an improbable cookie thief. it all seems unlikely Jamie's the

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thief right but the reader might not guess that Jamie stole the cookies not

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to eat them but to sell them on eBay. well double chocolate chips can get you

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a lot of dough on the you know ebay black market. well finally some red [woman behind laptop]

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herrings are clues or plot lines that seem important but turn out to be

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completely irrelevant to the story. going back to the cookie mystery the police

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might find a stray hair it's a scene of the crime which they take in for DNA

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analysis, which leads them to the address of a suspect who turns out to be the [lab tech mixes solution]

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woman who cleans the cookie jars making this plotline a complete waste of the

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readers time, but hey the officers get free tea so at least someone

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is happy. yeah and probably some doughnuts there, because you know they're policemen. [policeman in front of a doughnut shop]

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