He lived an isolated life once he moved. Instead of being friendly and sociable
‘he shut himself up in his house, and seldom came out, save to indulge in ferocious quarrels with whoever might cross his path.’
After the death of his wife he obtained an enraged personality. Now he certainly had the ability to commit a murder.
In Lamb to the Slaughter we find out early on that Mrs Maloney is the one who kills her husband and so the suspense is not who the murderer is, but if she gets caught or not. However in “The Speckled band” the readers do not know who has killed Helen’s sister and so it is more of a true murder story which makes us use our minds more and adds that bit more tension.
When we first hear of Mrs Maloney she comes across as a passionate woman who loved and cared for her husband. We wouldn’t think that her characteristics would suit the role of an innocent victim rather than a murderer.
“Now and again she would glance up at the clock, but without anxiety, merely to please herself with the thought that each minute gone by made it nearer to the time when he would come.”
It seemed like there was a stable relationship and that she was happy to follow the same precise routine everyday.
“When the clock said ten minutes to five, she began to listen, and a few minutes later, punctually as always, she heard the tyres on the gravel outside.”
She is able to stay calm about the crime she has just committed. Instead of panicking she is in control of the situation.
‘Alright.’
‘So I’ve killed him’
She covers up perfectly by getting an alibi and cleverly disposes of the murder weapon which is the twist in the tale. She needs the alibi because she is bearing a child and doesn’t want to be put in prison. This furthermore adds to the unlikely ness of her being the killer. Unlike Dr Roylott she has the ability to act innocent whilst the police were investigating. It is as though Mrs Maloney has done this before and the highly intelligent mother-to-be even thinks of giving them whiskey beforehand to slow down their thinking.
Dahl develops the character of Mrs Maloney. Starting as an everyday housewife she changes to a psychopathic killer whereas we think of Dr Roylott being evil from the beginning. You could say that they are opposites of each other but one similarity is that they both knew what they were going to do so that they would be able to cover up the murders. Mrs Maloney knew she needed an alibi and Dr Roylott knew that no doctor would be able to see the snakebites on the girl’s neck.
There also has to be a motive for the crimes to be committed. In each story they are different. Dr Roylott done what he did for the money whilst Mrs Maloney done the murder out of anger and being hurt by someone who she loved, revenge was also a key motive for her. She killed in a fit of passion and it was a surprising, out of character murder.
‘When she saw him lying there on the floor with his legs doubled up and one arm twisted back underneath his body, it really was rather a shock. All the old love and longing for him welled up inside her, and she ran over to him and began to cry her heart out.’
If there is a murder then of course there has to be a victim. Conan Doyle sticks with the traditional approach and uses an unstable, terrified woman.
‘It is not cold which makes me shiver… It is terror’.
The victim of ‘The Speckled Band’, Helen Stoner is also just about to come into some money. So there is a reason why she has been targeted, she is innocent and can’t defend her self, as she would like to.
However, unlike Helen who is a typical victim, Patrick Maloney is different. The reader wouldn’t think at first that he was going to be the murdered. This is because if he were killed there would be nothing much gained, like the money involved with ‘The Speckled Band’.
Whilst reading ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ the characteristics of Mr Maloney could suggest that he was the murderer instead of the victim, with his aggressive stance, drinking of whiskey and short monosyllabic answers. So it is a shock when he is killed instead of the other way around.
Overall, ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ and ‘The Speckled Band’ are both thought provoking, appealing murder mysteries but each in their own distinctive techniques. The murderers in each story both have their different motives and methods and the victims have been targeted for a specific reason.