Twelve Red Herrings


Twelve Red Herrings is a 1994 short story collection by British writer and politician Jeffrey Archer. Archer challenges his readers to find "twelve red herrings", one in each story. The book reached #3 in the Canadian best-sellers list. J. K. Sweeney from Magill Book Reviews reviews the stories as "An attempt, it must be said, which is of such a nature that quite often the author succeeds in the effort."
For the story "One Man's Meat..." the reader is offered the choice of four different endings: "Rare", "Burnt", "Overdone" and "À Point". Sweeney from Magill Book Reviews comments on this: "Each of the conclusions is quite plausible, although the average reader may find one far more convincing that the others--a circumstance which the author no doubt anticipated with a certain degree of relish."

Contents

The book contains 12 stories.
  • "Trial and Error"
  • "Cheap at Half The Price"*
  • "Dougie Mortimer's Right Arm"*
  • "Do Not Pass Go"*
  • "Chunnel Vision"*
  • "Shoeshine Boy"*
  • "You'll Never Live to Regret It"*
  • "Never Stop on the Motorway"*
  • "Not for Sale"
  • "Timeo Danaos"*
  • "An Eye for an Eye"*
  • "One Man's Meat..."
In the preface the author notes that the stories indicated with an asterisk are "based on known incidents."