I think the murderers were both cleverly described in the stories, in the ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ Roald Dahl described Mary Maloney as a loving women, who cared and loved her husband a lot,
“Now and again she would glance up at the clock, but without anxiety, merely to please herself with the thought that each minute gone by made it nearer to the time when he would come.” Mary and her husband seem to have a good life together and their life seems to be on a routine.
“When the clock said ten minutes to five, she began to listen, and a few minutes later, punctually as always, she heard the tyres on the gravel outside.” The way they are described is as if the same thing happens each week and every day at the same time. I think Roald Dahl does this to make it seem out of the ordinary when Patrick Maloney did not want to go out to supper on a Thursday. This would make us think something is about to happen what does not usually happen, Roald Dahl is very clever by the way he doesn’t tell us what Mr Maloney told Mrs Maloney this adds a little suspense to the story by making the readers wonder what Patrick could have done so bad that would make her want to kill her husband, Mary tries to carry on as normal after finding out the news, The murder was unplanned as she acted on the moment, this was different to the murder in ‘The Speckled Band’ as that took years of planning. The planning of the murder and attempted murder involved the placing of the air vent and the fake bell pull and bolting down the bed to the floor, Also Dr Roylott had to train the snake to do as he wanted and to make sure that the snake would not bite him.
There is one similarity between the two murderers they are both very clever, they both knew what they had to do to cover the murder up from the detectives, When Mary killed Patrick she knew she had to get a alibi, Mary used her husbands job cleverly she remembered what her husband had told her about murders and used it to her advantage. I don’t think Mary would have thought about getting an alibi if it wasn’t for the unborn baby she was carrying. Dr Roylott knew that no doctor would be able to see the snake bites on the girl’s neck, Dr Roylott was a very clever man but he never thought through everything, the girls locked the doors and bolted the windows shut, so the girl could not have been murdered by any one because the room was locked and no one could get in so it had to be some one in the room or another way they could get access to the room. Dr Roylott done the murders for money but Mary done the murder though anger and being hurt by someone she truly loved, and still loved
“When she saw him lying there on the floor with his legs doubled up and one arm twisted back underneath his body, it really was rather a shock. All the old love and longing for him welled up inside her, and she ran over to him and began to cry her heart out.”
In both of the stories there are detectives, who try to solve the murder. In the ‘lamb to the Slaughter’ the detectives seem to be unprofessional by drinking the whisky and not suspecting Mary Maloney because they knew who she was, when every thing was pointing at her, there was no sign of a break in or a struggle. It seems Roald Dahl was making fun of the police by not Making them do there job properly by letting Mary stay in the room where the murder took place without any one watching her where she could have done anything in there, and eating the meat which was the weapon.
“ Probably right under our very noses. What you think, Jack?” In ‘The Speckled Band’ the detectives are described differently, Sherlock Holmes is put across to us a very smart and clever man.
“I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm of your left glove” I think he is described that way to us because Watson is telling the story and this affects our view of him. The writer wants us to think that Sherlock and Watson are a good team and that they can handle any case together. There are many more differences than similarities between the two stories.
I liked reading both of these murder mysteries, but ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ was the best because Roald Dhal makes the detectives seem unprofessional and he doesn’t make them suspect Mary Maloney. I would like to read another part of this if there was, to see who the detectives suspect and if they find the weapon because they ate the weapon that was used to kill Mr Maloney, the leg of lamb.
