Tom Stoppard explored the crime fiction genre through satirizing the conventions of crime fiction, especially the classical crime fiction novel including the old British drawing room mysteries, traditional setting, very clichéd motives and the unravelling of storyline

The conventional setting of British drawing room mysteries is mocked early on in the play. As the old fashioned classical crime novels chose isolated areas away from the public, with the loneliness of the characters on that area enhance with fog and marsh to create a blurry effect of the entire crime web that has entangled over the story, where in this case, Stoppard uses a country mansion surrounded by fog and marsh. Many writers, whether writing for any genre, must always write lengthy descriptions from with just telling it or expressing it through the characters, without making it sound too forceful. Stoppard makes fun of this act of establishing...