Twelve Red Herrings (or 12 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 (fiction) list.[1] J. K. Sweeney from Magill Book Reviews (01/01/1995) 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."[2]
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."[2]
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 (some of them embellished with considerable licence)."