"red herring"

[justcarol67]

I (Carol) wrote:
> > 
> > I know the origin of the term "red herring" <snip etymology> But
I'm wondering if anyone can tell me when the term was first used for a
false clue in a mystery. Is it used in the Sherlock Holmes books? If
not, can someone with access to the OED look it up for me?
> 
David responded:
> I'm not sufficiently familiar with the, um, canon, to say whether 
> red herrings are mentioned.  
> However, the OED (New edition) is unhelpful.  It confirms your 
> etymology generally but has no mention of when it came into use for 
> detective stories specifically.
> I recommend you try Sherlock Holmes.  They are short enough that you 
> haven't lost much if you try one and don't like it.
 
kemper mentor added:
> In my high school lit class, we read 10 Little Indians by Agatha
Christy (not sure about the spelling). <snip reference to a red
herring in the story>

Carol again:
My sense of the term is that it's been around for awhile and was in
use with regard to mystery writing before Agatha Christie. I was
hoping the OED (unabridged) would have a quotation for it in that
sense, possibly from a mystery writer (not necessarily Conan Doyle).
The original OED had a dated quotation for every definition of every
word, if I'm not mistaken.

Can anyone else help me? If not, I suppose I could search an online
edition of the Sherlock Holmes stories (if one exists) and see if I
can find the term.

Carol