Detective Story

Sleuth is in part a parody of a detective story and in part a more convoluted mystery. It parodies detective stories in its setting an English country house and its characterization of Andrew a successful mystery writer in the classic style. Andrew takes upon himself the boastful air common to such well-known detectives as Agatha Christie's Monsieur Hercule Poirot, one of those detectives to whom Shaffer dedicates the play. Andrew is proud both of his sales record as a crime wnter, to which he refers numerous times, and of his cunning in putting together the plot to fool Milo. However, Sleuth is also a mystery of another sort Who is the murderer^ Who is a victim1' In fact, who is dead? Andrew revels in such puzzles, but Milo does not, though he is successful at them. At the end of the story, Milo declares, "To put...