Both 'Lamb to the Slaughter' and 'The Speckled Band' share some of the characteristics of murder mysteries. Explain the similarities and differences between the two stories and say which one you think is more compelling to read.

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Both ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ and ‘The

Speckled Band’ share some of the characteristics

of murder mysteries. Explain the similarities and

differences between the two stories and say which

one you think is more compelling to read.

        The authors of the two books are Conan Doyle and Roald Dahl. The speckled band was written by Conan Doyle in 1892, but Doyle started writing Sherlock Holmes stories in 1887. The Sherlock Holmes stories followed a ‘who done it’ theme, and were published in a weekly magazine, which gave a new clue, to the story it followed, the following week. Roald Dahl write Lamb to the Slaughter in 1954, a more up to date story as it may be. Dahl started writing war theme stories at the beginning of his career, then he moved onto writing adult stories in the 1950’s. Some of these later were turned into screenplays. Lamb to the Slaughter is written in third person, where The Speckled Band is written in first person.

        Speckled band starts off with Sherlock Holmes’ side-kick telling us about previous cases. Then moving on to the case, the story is based on. This case was the

                ‘ Surrey family of the Roylotts of

                Stoke Moran’.

The mood set out at the beginning of the story is tense, this is because the way in which new clues are given out to us after a few paragraphs. This makes us want to now what comes next and carry on with the story.

        We also get a tense mood at the beginning of Lamb to the Slaughter. We get this tense feeling as the book tells us about the room, it describes it to be,

                ‘Warm and clean’,

the paragraph also makes out a  dark room which adds tension. The way in which Mary Maloney waits for her husband to come back from work, makes me think that she is up to something and to expect something to come. The opening to this story in a way prepares us for what is to come, whereas in Speckled Band the mystery is brought in slowly and we do not expect what comes. I think Lamb to the Slaughter is more appealing at the start.

        The reader of Lamb to the Slaughter would get a ‘will the murderer get away with it’ effect. Lamb to the Slaughter is different to Speckled Band as it does not give out clues to the murder it goes straight into it. In the Speckled Band the detective Sherlock Holmes only knows the story Helen Stoner told him. So this means that he has to go around and search for clues, to fill in the missing gaps in the story. In the end with these clues he manages to find the murderer.

        The murderer in Lamb to the Slaughter is ‘ Mary Maloney’ she is the wife of the man that was murdered. The weapon she used to kill him was a leg of lamb, and then when the police detectives come Mary Maloney cooks the leg of lamb and the police men all eat it. The murderer in Speckled Band was ‘Dr. Roylott’, he murdered Helen Stoners sister. He managed to kill the sister by sending a snake through a ventilator, where once it reached the room it bit the sister and killed her. Dr. Roylott also tries to do the same thing again to Helen Stoner, he tries to do it in the same house and in the same room the sister died in.

        With Mary Maloney we see that she is a clean and tidy person, who has all the things ready in the house for her husband to come back to. When Mr. Maloney arrives home from work the room falls silent as the do not talk to each other,

                ‘Hullo’

is the only word spoken to each other at the start. The first appearance we get of Mary is a week lady, her behavior is the same as many house wives. I also get the feeling that she did not mean to kill Mr. Maloney, and that it was a mistake she made also because she seems like a soft lady. We get this soft feeling in the way she greets her husband,

                ‘Hullo, darling’,

by saying this in our mind we can fix an image of Mary Maloney saying it to her husband in a soft voice.

        Dr. Roylott however is a mean man, he lashes out a lot and he can not control himself. So in a way we can tell that he maybe up to something and that he may even be able to commit a murder. His character is big strong and very powerful, he also acts in a way in which makes him look crazy. By looking at this I would suspect him to be capable of committing a murder, also as every one that sees him gets very frightened. I think the stereotypical villain has to be Mary Maloney, this is because she can not be capable of committing murder. The believable murderer has to Dr. Roylott, this is because of the ways in which he scares people and the way in which he acts. Mary can control people in the soft, sweet way where Dr. Roylott controls people by using the top of his voice.

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        The typical murder detective has to be Sherlock Holmes, this is because of the way in which he finds the murderer by searching for clues. This is the way people would expect someone to find a murderer. The police officer in Lamb to the Slaughter Jack Noonan however, is more like a family friend, as he does not do much but just comforts Mary Maloney.

               “Would you rather go somewhere else”.

Then him and his officers end up eating the murder weapon. This adds humor to the story as the police officers do ...

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