The Old Dick employs three techniques which are primarily responsible for its success as satire and as detective fiction. First, the novel combines several traditional aspects of the genre with Spanner's trenchant observations on the disparity between his 1930s performances and the case on which he has recently so incredibly embarked.

Like many detective novels, The Old Dick includes chase scenes, encounters with old enemies, visits to trusted reliable sources for information, and a plot sufficiently complex to require considerable ingenuity on the part of the detective, as well as episodes of sex and violence. However, each of these appears in an altered context in the novel to make the satiric depiction hilarious. For example, one chase scene consists of Jake fleeing on foot from a seventy-five-year-old in a park, commenting as he runs that the scene must be hilarious to those watching as his exertions in his...