[Sleuth] is dedicated to a number of fictional detectives, including Father Brown and Gideon Fell. They are all detectives in the high tradition—"great" detectives, not just ordinary coppers. Shaffer himself has said, however, that the contribution the play makes to the detective tradition lies essentially in its introduction of a working class character, Milo Tindle, on equal terms with the other main, upper-class, character, Andrew Wyke, the detective story writer. That cross class fertilisation, Shaffer says, was necessary to save the English detective story from becoming a country house set, one class-ridden, variety of crossword puzzle.

"Crime Compendium," in The Spectator (© 1973 by The Spectator; reprinted by permission of The Spectator), Vol. 231, No. 7508, October 6, 1973, p. 454.∗