Both lamb to the slaughter and the speckled band share some of the same characteristics of a murder mystery story. Discuss the differences and similarities.

In The Lamb To The Slaughter the victim is not a typical victim and the murderer was not a typical murderer. In the beginning Mary Maloney seems to be a typical housewife. She depends upon her husband and cannot wait for him to come home. She was ready to make his supper. Later though when he came home, this woman brutally murders her husband. Roald Dahl surprises the reader by using this character as a murderer and the man as a victim. In The Speckled Band, Sir Author Conan Doyle portrays his female victim as helpless and reliant and a man.

Both stories have a detective but these characters are very different. In Lamb To The Slaughter, the detectives arrive at the scene of the crime and start to question Mary Maloney. They cannot find the weapon because Mary Maloney tricks them into eating the weapon.

Both stories use some of the ingredients that make a good murder mystery such as both writers create suspense by leaving clues and keeping the reader guessing. In lamb to the slaughter the reader tries to solve the murder mystery by using the clues that the reader has left. In the speckled band there are several clues and red herrings such as the gypsies always ware speckled bands around their heads. I prefer lamb to the slaughter because it is easier to follow than the speckled band.

The language in the stories lamb to the slaughter and the speckled band is quite different. In lamb to the slaughter it is easier to understand because it was written in the 1950's so it like every day language. The speckled band was written many years ago and the language reflects this. For example Sir Author Conan Doyle use's words like Dogcart and these words are no longer used and his sentence structure is much longer and complicated.

The setting of a murder mystery story is very important because it builds up the tension and makes the murder mystery more like a real murder. I feel that the setting in the speckled band works most effectively because they're many different things that could have murdered the woman. In lamb to the slaughter the setting is less effective because there is nothing spooky or anything else that could have killed him.

The ending of each story is very shocking because I never thought that it would turn out like that. For example in Lamb to the slaughter I would never have guessed the detectives would eat the murder weapon.