Question

Why do authors use red herrings?

Answer 1

Explanation:

The red herring device is especially common in mysteries, thrillers, and detective stories, where writers want to keep their reader guessing until the very end. ... Red herrings are the tricks that lead readers astray and thereby surprise them even more when something is revealed.

or

An author provides one or more red herrings intentionally to divert attention away from the true object or person of interest, thereby making the conclusion to the book more of a surprise

any answers you can right