Dr Roylott married the two girls mother Mrs Stoner in India. Mrs Stoner had a large sum of money about a thousand a year. Some time after they returned to England their mother died in a train accident, and all the money was left to Dr Roylott, as long as Helen or Julia didn’t get married, but if they did a certain amount of the money would go to them. This was a strong motive for the doctor to have committed the murder. .
Sherlock Holmes got interested in the case because he saw a challenge in it. When he went to the house he discovered that there was no possible way to get inside this room, the windows were barred securely, the walls were solid and so was the floor. The door was also very secure. Sherlock Holmes noticed that there was an air vent which led to the step father’s room, right under the vent was a bell string, which didn't function as a bell string, and the most strange of all thing was that the bed had been bolted to the floor. We are told in the story that the stepfather keeps a cheetah and a baboon. In the his room Sherlock noticed a safe which had a bowl of milk on top of it, this he thought was too small for a cheetah or a baboon to drink from. Near the vent was a chair, which after closely examined is found to have foot prints on it. After close observations of the room Sherlock Holmes came to the conclusion of how the step father committed the murder, but does not disclose this until the end.
From these clues Sherlock Holmes concluded that the stepfather kept a snake in the safe and the bowl of milk on top of the safe was used to feed it. When everyone was asleep he would take the snake from the safe, whilst standing on the chair he would ease the snake through the vent through the vent into his stepdaughter ‘Julia’s’ room. The snake would then climb down the rope on to her bed, which had deliberately been bolted don by the stepfather to make sure the snake would land on the bed. Then he would whistle to make the snake come back. Using the snake was clever idea because hundred years back they didn’t have the technology to detect poison in blood.
The story has the following typical features of a detective story: -
- The detective is very clever.
- He looks very carefully for evidence.
- The detective discovers who did it.
- The criminal is caught and made to pay for his crime.
- The reader is made to read to the end in order to find out how the murder took place.
The feature in this story which does not portray a typical detective story is that the reader is able to work out who committed the murder from the start of the story.
Lamb to the Slaughter
Roald Dahl begins this story by setting a calm and serene atmosphere. Mary Maloney is eagerly waiting for her husband to come home, so they can go out for their usual Thursday evening supper.
Mary is a very organised woman who thinks of her husbands every need and desire. When he arrives home she greeted him warmly, taking his coat, and hanging it in the closet, and say’s ‘Darling shall I get your slippers’. This story gives a lot detail about Mary’s character in the beginning, which makes the reader sympathise with her later, when she kills her husband.
Her husband Patrick tells her on this night that he wants to divorce her. He seems to be on edge, but is very direct in his approach. Mary’s first reaction is to ignore what she has just heard. She manages to whisper, “I’ll get supper”, and goes to the freezer and gets a leg of lamb. When she returned, Mr Maloney said for “Gods sake, don’t make supper for me, I’m going out”. At this point Mary walks up behind him and swings the frozen leg of meat on the back of his head. The way the murder took place is interesting, because it is unusual to use a piece of frozen lamb as a weapon.
This murder was committed when Mary was in a disturbed state of mind. Mary knew the penalty for murder but did not know what penalty was enforced upon a mother to be. She thought to her self did they wait until the child was born, or did they kill the mother and child together, this made her determined to create an alibi and cover her tracks. If it was not for the child I think she would have been relieved to confess, what she had done.
It is quite surprising that Mary killed her husband because until that point she has been shown as a loving and devoted wife, who could never do such a thing.
In the ‘speckled band’ the murderer Dr Roylott is a cold, calculating and a slightly psychotic character. He also has an aggressive and violent approach to people and likes to intimidate them. This type of character is most suited in a typical detective story. In ‘Lambs to the slaughter’ Mary is completely the opposite and possibly feels guilty for what she has done. In a model detective story the murderer gets caught because it would not be acceptable to let an evil character get away with a crime. When Dr Roylott was killed by the snake Sherlock Holmes says “violent does in truth recall upon the violent”. By this he means he has got what he deserves. Most detective stories end with a lesson to be learnt.
As one of the detectives was searching the house he commented “Get the weapon, and you’ve go the man”. After hearing this Mary started thinking about how to get rid of the weapon, she decided to try and convince them to eat the lamb, and succeeded in doing so. All the officers knew Mary and were clouded in their judgment of her character. They sympathise with the loss of her husband who she loved dearly.
The detectives are very unprofessional as they were drinking on the job.
The only evidence they looked for was the murder weapon, while typical detectives place more emphasis on the plot and motive for murder. In most popular detective stories the clever detective carry out a more thorough investigation of the scene and does not allow anyone to tamper with the evidence. He would look for forensic evidence and ask questions, whereas the detectives in this story did neither. If they did take a sample from the back of Mr Maloney’s head they would have probably found traces of lamb meat, and this would have led them to the murder weapon, and eventually to the murderer.
From the information we are given further investigations could have revealed that Mr and Mrs Maloney had marital difficulties. Mary is very fussy and controlling, this may have irritated Patrick. For this story to be more like a typical detective story the detectives needed to probe further for more information regarding their relationship. This would have led them to the murderer.
The features that make ‘Lambs to the slaughter’ an untypical detective story are.
- The murderer has no motive
- The murderer is not cold and calculating
- The murderer feels guilty
- The crime is not solved
- The detective are not clever
- The reader does not have to read to the end in order find out how the murder took place.
- None of the characters in this story are known or famous.
- The murder is committed on the spur of the moment.
After reading both these stories I prefer the ‘The speckled band’ because it has more suspense, thrill, and the story is more interesting, I think this is because the only thing you are told is in the main part of the story is who committed the murder. The suspense and the thrill in finding out how it was done kept me interested form the start to the end.