Sherlock Holmes warned that if a case was solved too easily, it was likely a red herring that distracted the detectives from the real criminal.

Mystery writers often use a red herring to mislead the reader into believing something is important that has nothing to do with the story.

The criminal planted drugs in his enemy’s car as a red herring to lead the police away from him.

Detectives thought the mysterious jewelry found at the scene of the crime was an important clue, but it was nothing more than a red herring.

Often politicians will use a controversial subject as a red herring to distract the media from important issues that they would rather not address.