The features in the plot that you expect to find in a typical murder mystery is that it always involves finding out who the murderer mystery is that it always involves finding out who the murderer is and how he did it. The murderer always strikes at the beginning and then the police get involved. Also you expect to find that the detective always knows more than he lets on. There is always a twist in the tale and the police normally catch the killer.
In the setting of a normal murder mystery is that its, normally in an isolated, lonely, setting, usually in the countryside. Its always night and its very rarely day. Also where the crimes are committed its normally in a big, old mansion with loads of rooms and features that are there to scare you.
Normally in the murder mystery the detectives normally wear a mackintosh (long Trench Coat) and their normally male and are aged 30-40s. Sometimes they work alone and they are very clever and get everything right. They usually work in pairs and the older one is really clever and the younger one is learning.
The possible victim is normally a female and they’re beautiful and young. They’re always dependent and feeble and they always do a stupid thing that puts their life at risk. The murderer is normally cunning, clever and are either very hot tempered or very calm. They’re normally male and their motive is normally money. They’re always close to the victim (linked) and they are premeditated rather than an impulsive murderer.
The language in a typical murder mystery is probably going to be complicated language in most stories. Its normally technical language and they sometimes use descriptive language. They use all of these to help build up tension.
“The Speckled Band” is about a murderer called Dr Roylett, a keeper of foreign animals. He gets an exon snake, to kill his stepdaughters so they don’t take his money when they get married. The “Speckled Band” is a typical murder mystery and this is because you expect to find these things in the plot and because the murder always happens at the start. The detective always knows more than he lets on. The writer does this so he can create tension and it keeps the reader interested.
I think that the “Speckled Band” has a typical setting because the murder was committed in an Isolated, lonely setting in the countryside. This is because Doyle wants the reader to be jumping out of their seat when something happens.
I think that the detective is typical of his genre in “The Speckled Band” because Sherlock Holmes is the clever one and Dr Watson is the younger one who is learning.
I think that the possible victim in “The Speckled Band” isn’t typical of her genre but we don’t really know because we don’t see enough of her in the book, we just hear about her from her sister.
I think the murderer is typical of his genre and this is because he was a Doctor and some Dr’s turn bad and people feared them at the time of this story because of some other Dr’s went crazy.
The language was typical in “The Speckled Band” because at the time of this story it had been written for the Victorians who used technical and descriptive language. In “Lamb to Slaughter” its about a women who is very good to her husband but when Patrick tells her that he is going to leave her so she hits him over the head with a log of meat and cooks the weapon.
I think that “Lamb to Slaughter” isn’t a typical murder mystery and it is based more for children because it isn’t very scary or gory and it doesn’t get you jumping out of your seat because its a basic story line. The set is very basic because the detective/detectives are too nice to the women and don’t really want to find out who killed him; they’re not too bright neither and are extremely lazy. The victim is a very strong, clever male who you wouldn’t expect to be killed. The murderer is a very tired, quiet women who cares about her husband and you wouldn’t put her down for the killing type. The language is very easy to understand and there are hardly any big words and this is because it’s mainly for children.
Overall I think that “The Speckled Band” is not typical for its genre and I think this is because it has a more realistic, believable story line. Also it is what you expect to find in a normal murder mystery and the characters are more believable and better placed in the story.
I think both stories are successful because “Lamb to Slaughter” is more for children so more children would buy it because it’s easy to read, and is easy to understand. Where as on the other hand “The Speckled Band” is more of a complex story so I think more adults would buy this book. The book which I preferred more in my opinion is “The Speckled Band” and this is because it has more twists to the story and the story was a more dull, dark, scary story and also the victim had a more gory death.
Matthew Shaw/10Ds
