Where in Lamb to the Slaughter the end is more like a comedy scene, which is designed to make you laugh as you watch the police men eat the leg of lamb that she committed the murder with and then hear her laugh ‘Mary Maloney began to giggle.’ Also the murder weapon is meant to funny, as she doesn’t kill her husband with a conventional murder weapon with is cunningly thought through, but instead a leg of lamb. Neither does the murder as it is just a spur of the moment thing ‘She simply walked up behind him and without pause she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air, and brought it down as hard as she could.
This doesn’t make the story seam very, sinister or cunning compared to the Speckled Band. Which is planned out to the last tee, this affects the atmosphere greatly, which makes you keep reading to the end where it finishes dramatically and quickly. The reason for keeping the reader reading in Lamb to the Slaughter is to see if Mary manages to fool the police into believing it’s not her and also to see what else happens that is strange and also to see if the police have anything to say about what her husband told Mary before she killed him, and to see if they know about it. It affects the atmosphere hearing the story from the murders point of view, as it doesn’t make it all seam as brutal as you see her point of view as well as his.
Neither in Lamb to the Slaughter or The Speckled Band a stereotypical murder weapon is used, or a stereotypical murder mystery commits a murder. In Lamb to the Slaughter a leg of lamb is used to kill a loving husband and farther to be, by his loving 6 month pregnant wife who looked ‘placid’ and ‘tranquil’ with ‘soft dark eyes.’ But on the other hand it is usually the person you would least suspect, and she had been told some pretty awful news. ‘This is going to be a bit of a shock to you.’
In the Specked Band the murder is a stereotypical murder, but still not a typical murder mystery killer. He easily losses his temper ‘in a fit of anger’ ‘absolutely uncontrollable in his anger.’ Even his daughter describes him as ‘shutting himself up in his house, and seldom coming out save to indulge in ferocious quarrels with who ever might cross his path’ at the start of the story. She also admits he became ‘the terror of the village’ This makes you immediately think he would be the one to have committed the murder, whilst usually in a story of a murder mystery genre a character like him would only be in the story to take the detective off the sent. The author makes it even more obvious when he finds out his daughter had been to see Holmes, so he goes round to tell Holmes to keep his nose out, in a rage. But this doesn’t affect the need to keep reading the story the reader has, because after that they keep reading to find out how he did it. The only time you are taken off the sent is when a speckled band is spoken about by the dying girl whom her sister thought was a band of local gypsies. ‘The spotted handkerchiefs, which so many of them wear.’ Holmes asks when inspecting the house ‘were, there gypsies in the plantation at the time?’
The murder weapon used in the Speckled Band was a well thought out one, but it still isn’t typical a it is most probably very risky using a live animal as a weapon, because any thing could go wrong as it does when at the end of the story when it turns on its master. But the big carefully thought out plan shows how it wasn’t just an impulse kill like in Lamb to the Slaughter, he must have had to go to a lot of trouble to get every thing he needed, like a snake that’s venom didn’t show up in tests and also who’s fangs don’t make visible marks in the skin. Also this murder was taken out by a man motivated by nothing but money and greed. As the only reason he tried to murder both his stepdaughters was because they where due to inherit £250 each when they where to marry, from his dead wife, that would be his other wise. Where Mary murdered her husband by not being able to live without him, not because he had things she wanted.
Also one of the most unlike parts in the two stories is the people who investigate the murders. In one of the stories, Lamb to the Slaughter, a group of not very clever, local policemen investigate Patrick Maloney’s death and even treat the murderer nicely ‘exceptionally nice to her’ and even before they had really even started investigating the murder they had decided that it was ‘impossible that she’ had done anything to harm him and completely forgot that there was even the slightest chance she could just be putting all the tears on. One police officer even offered her a bed for the night at his own house where ‘his own wife would take care of her.’ Before they went she had even managed to get them all to have ‘a little nip of whisky’ and to eat the murder weapon they had been searching everywhere for, taking up most of their evening. ‘They where persuaded to go into the kitchen and help themselves.’ This sort of behaviour is probably nearly the most opposite type of detective you could get to a typical murder mystery one.
But in The Speckled Band Sherlock Holmes is really the most typical murder mystery detective you could read about and exactly what you would expect a murder mystery detective to like, in looks, as he smokes a pipe and wears a tweed suit and personality. He doesn’t let anything get passed him, and has to be sure with everything. Even the last little detail he will pick up on, ‘after a careful examination.’ He takes time to think things carefully through ‘buried in the deepest thought’ as not to make any tiny mistakes. His sidekick, Watson is also clever but I don’t think quite as observant as Holmes ‘I may have deduced a little more,’ he usually has to ask Holmes for directions in what to do ‘can I be of assistance?’ and he seems to look up to Holmes as he acts like he’s an authority in what is right and what’s not. ‘admiring the rapid deductions.’
The structure in both the stories is quite different as well, The speckled Band isn’t set until two years after the murder that is being investigated which was brought back to life when her sister starts hearing the same whistles at night as her sister did nights before her death ‘I suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which had been the herald of her own death.’ It is told by Watson, Holmes’s trusty side kick, this gives you the same information that is given to him, so makes you realise how difficult it is to get your head around the murder and how clever he and Holmes are to be able to solve it. It is told by the murder in the other story, Lamb to the Slaughter, this is a very different way for a murder mystery to be told and so shows you everything from a more interesting point of view. It makes you realise everything is done for a reason, and most murder mysteries wouldn’t be a mystery if they were told like this, so it isn’t conventional at all. This also shows in the ending of the story, instead of the detectives finding out the murderer and locking them up, it finishes with them eating the murder weapon whilst saying ‘the weapon is probably right under our noses.’ and with the murderer laughing ‘Mary Maloney began to giggle.’ This is all designed to add to the humour of the story, instead of having an usual ending which would be quite boring for the reader as they have known who killed him all the way through any way.
The Speckled band ends in an average murder mystery-ending sort of way, where the murderer is found and the way he murdered is also found out. The one difference is that he is killed with his own weapon, the Indian snake he had brought especially over to England as it’s poison wasn’t recognised by doctor here. Unlike in Lamb to the Slaughter it ends with the end of the case as Lamb to the Slaughter ends really before the case had really began but just when you know they will never catch her as they have eaten the weapon.
