Both The Speckled Band and Lamb to the Slaughter share some characteristics of the detective stories. Consider how they fit into the genre of the detective stories and the similarities and differences between the two

Authors Avatar

Katie Tiddeman

Both The Speckled Band and Lamb to the Slaughter share some characteristics of the detective stories.  Consider how they fit into the genre of the detective stories and the similarities and differences between the two.

The first detective story was written in 1841 by Edgar Allen Poe, this story was called ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue.’  Since the Murder in the Rue Morgue was published they have been one of the most popular genre of books.  There have been many other famous detective stories such as Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Hercule Poirot stories by Agatha Christie which are quite similar to the Sherlock Holmes stories as both writers were writing for the upper class readers of the time and at the end of both stories the detectives explain to the readers what crime was committed and the detectives had found the evidence to support there suspicions.  Ruth Rendell began writing themes which included corrupt police and murderer not convicted.  Also there are now lots of TV series/films in the genre, such as ‘The Bill’, ‘A Touch of Frost’, ‘Midsummer Murders’ and ‘Inspector Morse’.  Until recently detective stories have always had ‘neat and tidy’ endings as everything was explained so there were no loose endings, which the readers of that period liked.  But now there have been twists and endings that lead your imaginations running wild and your brain working over time trying to think of the ending to the story and I believe that this is how we like it!  However the typical features of detective stories still remain, such as the victim(s), the villain(s), crime and the detectives.

Both Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie wrote for the upper class readers.  Most Agatha Christie stories had a detective called Hercule Poirot in them and as she was writing for upper class readers, she assumed that they had travelled as she wrote a book called ‘Murder on The Orient Express’.  Also in some of her books she wrote words or phases in French as she assumed again that as her readers were of the upper class they would be able to understand French.

The detectives in the Speckled Band and Lamb to the Slaughter are very different as Sherlock Holmes (detectives in the Speckled Band) was a private detective with a sidekick called Dr Watson.  Sherlock Holmes worked because he loves what he does and isn’t bothered about the money “working as he did rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wealth.”  As a private detective he was very selective to what work he did, as he would only work if the case interested him.  His work was very thorough, he used his power of deduction to solve the crime as at the time when The Speckled Band was written they didn’t have forensics or DNA, like in Lamb to the Slaughter, so he was very analytical.  He plays the main character in this story as everything is based around him and his side kick Dr Watson.

The detectives in Lamb to the Slaughter are called Jack Noonan and O’Malley; there is also medical staff, forensics and photographers.  They are in the police force.  I think they work because they want or need the money.  Their work is not very thorough or selective as I think they have all the forensics to check things out for them.  The detectives are not the main characters in this story because they only come in half way through the story as the story is based around Mrs Maloney and her husband.  

As with the detectives the crimes and motives are completely different, in The Speckled as it is in Lamb to the Slaughter.

In Lamb to the Slaughter the crime was impulsive as Mrs Maloney didn’t plan on killing her husband, but when Mr Maloney told her that he was leaving “this is going to be a bit of a shock to you I’m afraid, but I’ve thought about it a good deal and I’ve decided the only thing to do is tell you right away.  I hope you won’t blame me too much.” She flipped!  This was her motivation for killing her husband.  In this story the weapon (the leg of lamb) was very unusual, as no one would expect a leg of lamb to be used as a murder weapon, let alone a pregnant women to be the murderer!  The methods used to conceal the crime was Mrs Maloney gave herself an alibi as she went to the grocers after she had put the leg of lamb in the oven.  She gave herself an alibi because of her unborn baby “what about the child? What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did they kill them both-mother and child?  Or did they wait until the tenth month?  What did they do?”  By Mrs Maloney putting the leg of lamb in the oven it destroyed all the evidence.  Therefore Mrs Maloney had ruined all the polices chances of finding out who and what killed Mr Maloney.  There were no witnesses of this murder.

Join now!

For The Speckled Band the crime was premeditated as Dr Roylott planned to kill Julia for her mother’s money because when Julia married, the money that was left to her in her mothers will would be given to her.  Helen’s attempted murder nastily repeats the situation that Julia had been in.  Dr Roylott killed Julia and attempted to kill Helen because he would be left poor after both girls had married.  In this murder a snake called an Indian Swamp Adder, which was brought from India by Dr Roylott while he was on his travels, killed Julia, this was a ...

This is a preview of the whole essay