Metzger has a Ph.D., specializing in literature and drama at the University of New Mexico, where she is a lecturer in the English department and an adjunct professor in the University Honors Program. Metzger is also a professional writer and the author of several reference texts on literature. In this essay, she discusses the genre of the modem comedy thriller and the ways in which Sleuth has subverted the traditional detective play, using both comedy and deception to create a sub-genre of an old literary- staple.

Shaffer's Sleuth could easily be described as a parody of earlier detective plays, such as those by Agatha Christie. When Sleuth opened, Christie's Mousetrap had been on stage in London for nearly twenty years. In spite of this long run, audiences still returned to see the play again and again. There is a comfort in the familiar, and that is...