Red Herrings are crucial to novels of mystery, suspense, and thrillers. The term is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as something that takes attention away from a more important subject. In other words, red herrings misdirect the reader away from the crime, event, or person(s) that are truly responsible. At this panel discussion at during recent Bouchercon, the world’s largest mystery/crime writer’s conference, six prominent authors discussed how they write a good red herring and keep readers turning the pages.

Caro Ramsay – Moderator who write Scottish crime fiction.

Alison Gaylin – author of Never Look Back

Heather Graham – NY Times Best-selling authors of over 200 books.

Edwin Hill – author of The Secret We Share.

James L’ Etoile – took his experience in the criminal justice system and writes gritty, crime fiction.

Wendy Corsi Staub – NY Times Best-selling author of over 90 books. In her latest book, The Other Family, Staub said that the house is not just part of the story, but also a red herring.

• CR: Is it easier to pull of a twist in a standalone book or a series?

HG: I think they’re equally difficult.

WCS: In The Other Family, the house isn’t just part of the story, but also the red herring. But don’t introduce the murder at the very end. It’s the Cardinal Sin of writing mystery stories, referred to as cheating the agreement between the writer and reader.

• CR: Where does the genesis for your books come from?

HG: News stories where people get killed, especially if they’re young. *There was unanimous agreement on this method of finding ideas.

• CR: What’s the best twist you’ve ever read?

AG: Laura Lippman’s Dream Girl.

HG: Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects. When you go back and read it again, it’s all there.

WCS: I disagree. Margaret Atwood said a twist is a sequence of logical events.

• CR: What are your thoughts on getting stuck?

EH: You’re starting a jigsaw puzzle, but you don’t know what the picture is.

AG: I was stuck on a plotline, and someone suggested, “Do the opposite. Another way to get unstuck in a plot is to ask yourself “What if?” That can change everything. I outline only three chapters ahead. Some authors have incredibly detailed outlines, while other authors ‘write by the seat of their pants’

Author Comment: The term often used is ‘pantsing’ which took me a while to figure out what was being talked about. I myself lean towards detailed outlines, having found that when I write by the seat of my pants, the risks of having to re-write entire sections of a crime or mystery novel so the narrative flows logically while keeping the reader guessing is far more difficult.

• CR: What’s the one line you won’t cross?

JE: Time travel revealed in the books end in a story that wasn’t about time travel.

WCS: Getting the twist early in the book. I love being fooled.

HG: A character suddenly introduced at the end.

• CR: Name some good twists.

HG: People who are seen as trustworthy and turn out not to be who the reader thought they were.

EH: Standard 3-act structure. Then killing off the character you most suspected in the second act.

HG: Also, don’t be rigid in who killer is; be flexible. You can change the killer if the story works better.

JE: As to writing a good, believable twist, the author has to go back over their feathering and texture process of hints after writing the twist to be sure it makes sense.

• CR: How do you write a great backstory?

WCS: I give myself permission to create the backstory in the first draft. Then I highlight what can be removed. For example, what a character sees about a room.

HG: Putting important things weaved into conversations is a good way of doing this.

• CR: How do you handle liars?

HG: Who the murderer is.

WCS: Identifying a lie in a secondary character.

EH: However, the author cannot lie to the reader!

The conclusion of the discussion focused on the author’s frustration with their book covers and blurbs, which they frequently don’t have a say over. One main complaint was reviewers on a jacket cover exclaiming, “You’ll never see this twist coming!” Agreed – that ruins the twist.

*As an author at an independent publishing house, Publish Her Press, I’m lucky in that I able to express my opinion on cover ideas. I’ve never had a cover I didn’t just love. For me personally a cover that intrigues a reader to want to know more is huge.