In the main story there are big differences. The biggest difference is apparent almost from the start. This is the perspective you are reading from. In Lamb to the Slaughter you are reading from the third person, you are there in the room listening and seeing what happens, but in The Speckled Band it is from Watsons point of view and you are reading from his notes.
Another difference in the stories is that in Lamb to the Slaughter you are made to sympathise more with the murderer, Mary Maloney, than with the victim, her husband, and the mystery you have in the story is not who killed her husband but whether Mary Maloney will get caught. In The Speckled Band you have a much more standard Sherlock Holmes plot, you try to discover who the murderer is. In The Speckled Band you have a murder and you want to know who did it, so in this story you are made to sympathise with the victim.
Also the method of murder in the two stories is very different, The Speckled Band is very in keeping with previous Holm stories because it has an unusual, mysterious way of murder, but in Lamb to the Slaughter, the murder is very bland compared to The Speckled Band, it is much less mysterious and is straight forward, also in The Speckled Band there are many things thrown in to distract you and to add even more mystery like reading about Doctor Roylotts violent past and his time in jail, also the way the phrase “speckled band” is misinterpreted by Holmes, especially when you here about the gypsies on the estate, and you find no apparent way of murder in the story which also puts you off, and although you know Roylott has exotic animals you do not know he has a snake with him.
Another factor that changes the stories is that The Speckled Band was a serialized story, sold in a magazine once a month so they had to add an aspect of mystery to each part of the story. Lamb to the Slaughter was sold in a book of short stories so they made it with one main mystery. The Speckled Band is also more structured because evidence is given to you piece by piece, it is very carefully planned so you have no signs of how she was murdered, you have a motive but no evidence. It also gives you a lot of information at the start which helps you figure it out and you always get the same information as Holmes so this is another aspect which helps in it being serialized, you want to see if you come to the same conclusion as Holmes as you have the same information.
But in Lamb to the Slaughter you do not really feel that a murder is about to happen, it is much more spontaneous, seeing as you are told things are the same as a normal day at there house, the only signs of something about to happen are subtle differences in what happens, like
Mr. Maloney having a larger drink than normal or him not wanting to go out for supper as you are told they usually do that night. You are also not told what is said that gets Mrs. Maloney in a murderous state of mind, you presume that she is told he is having an affair from what is said afterwards, but you are just guessing, this is another aspect of mystery in the story. Then things carry on as normal, and you are caught totally by shock when the murder occurs, also after the murder has happened she acts normally, until after she gets the pudding from the shop, then it is apparent that she has realized what she has done and becomes hysterical. The point that this story hinges on is the ironical event that happens at the end, whilst the police are searching for the murder weapon Mrs. Maloney insists that they eat the leg of lamb, this is the murder weapon, which had been cooking. And whilst they were eating it they were talking about how easy it should be to find the murder weapon as it must be so big they will not miss it, so whilst they are talking about finding the weapon they are getting rid of it for her.
In The Speckled Band there is one point that the makes the story, this is that that there is a very well developed plot through out the story, there is a great deal of detail and many aspects of mystery that develop through out, and tied together these give the story a very solid basis to build on.
