The tow murderers in both The Speckled Band and The Lamb to the Slaughter are very different people. In The Speckled Band we don’t learn who the murderer is until late in the story. But suspicions about who the murderer is are quite clear from about half way through the story. The murderer is Dr Roylott. He is an evil cold-hearted man who is possessed by the power of money. He is strong in body but weak of mind. “…man of immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger.” He also has a strange side, after spending time in India where he was a major general of the Bengal artillery he developed a passion for Indian animals, which where sent over to him from a correspondent. It then goes on to say that he has a cheetah and a baboon. He also has a snake which we also don’t learn about till very close to the end.
In addition Miss Stoner, in The Speckled Band is a typical victim, vulnerable, anxious, weak and scared. She say’s “ It is not cold which makes me shiver”, she was worried for her life. This line grips the reader and we can sense that something sinister is about to happen. Also in The Speckled Band, Dr Roylott, is the evil, plotting, devious, fictional murderer; this character was portrayed in most murder mysteries stories written in the late 19 century. The Speckled Band was written in 1892.
In The Lamb to the Slaughter the murderer is Mary Maloney. We do not expect this due to the fact that she is a woman. In typical murder mysteries the killer is usually a man, but in this story it’s a woman. Roald Dahl describes her as “…tranquil…. …for this was her sixth month of child…” this statement also lets the reader know that Mary is pregnant. This also gives a false sense of who the murderer is. We are surprised and almost shocked when we learn that Mary Maloney is the murderer.
The motives in the stories are again both very different; in The Speckled Band the obvious motive is money. After Dr Roylott’s wife dies, his two-step daughters come to live with him. His wife leaves the family £1000 a month providing that the girls are un-married. The strange happenings begin to start when Julia went away “…at Christmas two years ago, and met there a half-pay Major of the Marines, to whom she became engaged. My stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned, and offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of the day, which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event occurred…” this gives us a brief description about the events leading up to the death of Julia. One of the prime motives for Dr Roylott would be that if this sep-daughter got married then he would looses £250 of the £1000 per month inheritance. We then learn that due to the fall in agricultural price the inheritance was now no more than £750 per month. In the event of marriage each daughter can clam £250 per month of the inheritance. This would be a prime motive for Dr Roylott killing Julia, it would leave him with a substantial amount more of money that what he would be left with if Julia were to marry.
Mary Maloney’s motive for murdering her husband was because he has told her he would be leaving her for someone else, “Of course I’ll give you money and see you’re looked after. But there isn’t needn’t really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn’t be very good for my job.” We do not know whom he is leaving Mary Maloney for, but we presume that it is another woman. He offers he money; we take this to be for Patrick’s un-born child, that marry is carrying. Marry does not plan the murder and in a way I believe that in a way she is innocent and that Patrick deserves to die for leaving Marry with his un-born child.
In the scene of the crime in The Speckled Band was in an old house. The house is described as “The building was of grey, lichen – blotched stone, with a high central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly caved in, a picture of ruin.” This creates a spooky and scary atmosphere. The atmosphere makes you feel very cautious because it’s a typical description of a haunted house where anything could suddenly happen. You could relate this atmosphere to a typical atmosphere of a murder mystery. To add to the atmosphere or fear and horror were both a baboon and cheetah in the house.
In Lamb to the Slaughter, in the scene of the crime there is a very calm and relaxed atmosphere “The room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two table lamps alight – hers and the one by the empty chair opposite. On the sideboard behind her, two tall glasses, soda water, whisky. Fresh ice cubes in the Thermos Bucket.” Although there is calm and relaxed atmosphere, it is a little too calm which creates tension. I understand why her husband might have left her is because she creates too much tension and she fussed over him too much.
The differences in the settings in the two stories is that the Roald Dahl story is set in the present time, whereas the Conan Doyle’s story is set in a period of over 100 years ago. Both of the murders are set in the family home. In the Lamb to the Slaughter, “The room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two table lamps alight”. “The bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms being in the central block of the building”, describes the house of Dr Roylott in The Speckled Band.
In Lamb to the Slaughter the detective did not suspect Mary Maloney, put pressure on her, they didn’t make her leave the room, suspect a women and didn’t solve the crime. These were things, which they should have done. Things they did do which they shouldn’t have done were discussing the crime with Mary, drinking, eating on duty and eating the evidence. The detectives were very sloppy with the investigation “ she could hear them speaking among themselves, their voices thick and sloppy.” This has a double meaning about the detectives and their investigation. They were thick because they ate the evidence and they ran a sloppy case.
In The Speckled Band Sherlock Holmes suspects Dr Roylott, treats the case as urgent, treats Helen Stoner kindly, spots all the clues, takes personal risks and solves the crime. He does this by spotting all the clues “My attention was speedily drawn…to this ventilator, and to the ropes which hung down to the bed. The discovery that this was a dummy and that the bed was clamped to the floor, instantly gave rise to suspicion that the rope was there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me. Initially I had an idea that Dr Roylott had something to do with the murder.” But after, when Sherlock Holmes revealed it couldn’t be him I had a suspicion that it was an animal because there was a cheetah and a baboon in the house. Sherlock Holmes is a good detective because he is very observant and picks up on clues very quickly. He also thinks very logically.
Most murder mysteries have the typical victims, murderers, and detectives; this is especially true in the older murder mysteries by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Speckled Band has a typical detective, the famous detective being Sherlock Holmes with his deer stalker hat and pipe always deep in thought about the investigation “his arms folded, his hat pulled down over his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the deepest thought”. But in the Lamb to the Slaughter the detectives are so foolish and naives, a complete contrast to Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes comes across as a typical fictional detective.