The Five Red Herrings

The Five Red Herrings (also The 5 Red Herrings) is a 1931 mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, her sixth featuring the fictional gentleman detective named Lord Peter Wimsey. In the United States it was published in the same year under the title Suspicious Characters. The novel follows Lord Peter's efforts to solve the mystery of a Scottish painter who is found dead next to a canvas painted in his style by another artist, leading suspicion to fall on six talented artists in the area who had disputes with the dead man. Lord Peter realizes that one of the six artists is the criminal, while the other five are red herrings.