How did Roald Dahl create atmosphere and tension in the story Lamb to the Slaughter?

time that he would normally arrive.  “When the clock said ten minutes to five she began to listen, and a few moments later, punctually as always, she heard the tyres on the gravel outside”.  When he pulls into the drive she can see “the flash of light through the gap in the curtains” now that he has arrived the household is complete and she goes to the door to greet him with a kiss, he is home now and Mrs Maloney is glad to see him as any wife would be.  They move into the living room and Mrs Maloney pours the drinks, an atmosphere of contentment is created “there was a slow smiling air about her and about everything she did”.  The drinks are quite symbolic.  Mrs Maloney is pregnant so she pours Mr Maloney “a fairly strong one for him and a weak one for herself”.  This could be reversed onto the characters, Mrs Maloney the small weak pregnant woman, Mr Maloney is the big, and strong policeman, this creates an atmosphere of normality, nothing out the ordinary is happening.  They are acting as most married couples would act; she is running around after her husband who is relaxing in his comfortable chair after a hard days work.  This makes the next thing that happens so out of the ordinary “He did an unusual thing.  He lifted his glass and drained it in one swallow”.  He is acting out of the ordinary, this immediately changes the atmosphere and creates tension because, she is keeping to the same routine, greeting him at the door, taking his coat, pouring him a drink, but he is doing things out of the ordinary.  This makes us think that there is something going on, something that Mr Maloney knows but is not telling Mrs Maloney, this builds tension.  She is happy sitting there in her chair in the presence of her loved one.  “She loved to luxuriate in the presence of this man, and to feel almost as a sunbather feels the sun, the warm male glow that came out of him to her when they were alone together”.  They are contrasting each other; she is sitting in her comfortable chair sewing.  He is draining his glasses of stronger than usual whiskey this creates a new atmosphere, up to now everything has been routine but now Mr Maloney begins to act out of the ordinary Mrs Maloney tries to get to the bottom of it.  She asks him “Tired darling” he answers in an unusual briefness              When he tells her there is no text explaining what he is saying only what her reactions are.  We presume that he is leaving her for another woman.  The atmosphere changes and a nervous tension created.  We do not know what is going to happen next.  He says that he will ensure that she is cared for, as that, she is carrying his child “of course I’ll give you money and ensure you are cared for”.         She is in a state of shock and goes into the kitchen to prepare the meal.  “When she walked across the room she couldn’t feel her feet touching the floor” she has become so emotional that she has no feelings, she has to do something, as before she goes back into the routine of making the meal.  “Everything was automatic now”.  Tension is created, because we do not know what is going to happen next, she collects a leg of lamb from the freezer walks into the living room and strikes her husband over the back of the head.  He falls to the floor and dies, the atmosphere is a mixture between shock and surprise, and it is a dramatic twist for her to murder her husband creating a mysterious tension because we do not know what is going to happen next as that, we have just had such a big surprise.  She now plans how she can hide what she has done.  She rushes up to her room to prepare for what she is going to do.  She goes to the local shop and uses the shopkeeper as an alibi.  When she arrives back home the corpse of her husband greets her, she rushes over to him and begins to cry uncontrollably as “the old feelings for him return to her”.  We now feel an atmosphere of love and longing rush through us; we feel the loss that she has suffered, twice.  She phones for the police claiming that someone had murdered her husband.  As we know her husband was a policeman, the man on the other side is shocked and says that a police car will be around in a minute.  She now puts the leg of lamb into the oven to get rid of the evidence, when the policemen arrive; they assess the situation and try to calm down the woman.  Once everything has been cleared away the woman, Mrs Maloney offers the policemen the leg of lamb.  The story ends with Mrs Maloney giggling to herself in the living room as the policemen clear off all the evidence, an atmosphere in created as though there has been an adventure and everything has returned to what it was like at the beginning of the story.