Summer seems right for mysteries, even those set in gloomy English countryside homes, and Sleuth is a fun one not often seen. The 1970 Sleuth, filmed starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine in 1972, requires two strong actors, a richly detailed (and durable—it gets trashed twice nightly) set, and an audience ignorant of its secrets.

Director Jim Helsinger receives the first two, and tries to protect the third with ushers displaying "Don't Tell the Secret" signs to patrons leaving the DeSales University Arena Stage. Since the play depends on it, I'll try to help out.

Carl N. Wallnau plays flamboyant detective novelist Andrew, who invites Bradford Cover's working-class Milo for a manly drink. Milo's sleeping with Andrew's wife, so with an English gentleman's drollery, Andrew inquires, "Can you afford to take her off my hands?"

Wallnau has great fun playing Andrew's obsession with games, which litter the spacious two-level office designed by Bob Phillips, and soon proposes one to benefit both men: Milo can steal Andrew's jewels to fund his marriage to Andrew's wife, while Andrew collects the insurance. Milo balks. "Of course it's criminal," Andrew scolds. "All good moneymaking schemes in England these days have to be."

Andrew seals the deal with copious amounts of alcohol and clever blather about "the romance of crime"—but is he really so eager to shed his wife's expensive habits, or is he setting up Milo for revenge?

At the first act's end, after the room is tossed and shots are fired, we're still wondering—and that's all that I dare tell, except to mention that the games continue with many surprises.

Knowing the play's tricks, I found the production well-executed in all ways: vigorously staged for the audience on all three sides, inventively and sincerely acted, well-costumed by Amy E. Lobmeyer, and moodily lit by Steve TenEyck. Shaffer—twin of Peter, of Equus and Amadeus fame—even uses the genre's twists and turns to muse about the appeal of games and the nature of love. The man might have had only one play in him, but it's a good one.

We'll wait years and years to see another professional Sleuth of this caliber—and it might be the most daring choice in PSF's very safe 15th season.