She covers up her evil deed and goes to the local shops to create an alibi. She arrives back and puts on an act and calls the police and pretends she knows nothing about how he died.
When the police arrive they spend time examining the murder scene and the victims body without any luck. When they were almost done Mary Maloney offers the detectives the cooked leg of lamb to eat. Reluctantly they agree and so eat the murder weapon and only clue to solving the case.
In the Speckled band, there are suspects for the murder from the start when Helen Stoner explains her shocking tale to Sherlock Holmes who immediately starts his deduction on who the murderer could be. He even makes observations on Ms. Stoner on how she got to him that day and notices a rail ticket in her hand and mud spatter on her jacket, which he explains could only be done by a Dog Cart.
After Ms. Stoners Shocking story she explains how her life has been miserable up until now, as she is engaged to be married and she has started hearing the strange whistles in the night. Holmes immediately suspects either Dr Roylett her cruel stepfather or the Gypsies her lets camp on his land.
Holmes’ careful observations throughout the story, such as the phoney bell rope and the misplaced air vent eventually solve the case and lead to Dr. Royletts unexpected death.
Both stories share some similarities and some differences. Some of the similarities are both stories have a murderer, a victim, a detective and a twist in the story.
The detectives in the stories couldn’t be more different. Sherlock Holmes is a professional sophisticated witty character who finds all the clues and solves the case. In lamb to the slaughter there are a few detectives , the main one being sergeant Noonan who is unprofessional , ignorant and doesn’t come close to solving the case. Because of his ignorance he doesn’t even consider Ms.Maloney to be the culprit and eventually eats the leg of lamb, thus destroying the only piece of evidence.
One prominent difference in the two stories is the character of the murderers. Dr. Roylett is a vicious brute of a man who hasn’t a care in the world for his one surviving stepdaughter. Royletts evil mind even showed through in his face and figure, “resemblance to a fierce bird of
prey…bile shot eyes…marked with every evil passion...” Roylett fits the description of a typical murderer and so Holmes suspects him from start to finish.
On the other hand there is Mary Maloney the loving housewife who is so shocked by news brought home by her husband that she kills him with a frozen leg of lamb. Ms. Maloney is a pregnant wife, who doesn’t show one ounce of evil in her until the last line of the story “…Mary Maloney began to giggle.” This sounds as if she is happy that her husband is dead even though her child is going to grow up without a father, and she is going to avoid punishment.
Mary Maloney couldn’t be further away from the typical description of a murderer, even though she didn’t show any remorse what so ever. She is the complete opposite character to Roylett and couldn’t be more different. She is a kind caring wife who was angered so much by the news she received, that in an unexpected rage, killed her husband.
Another Similarity and difference in the two stories is that both contain some sort of twist. In the speckled band it is more prominent, when Roylett’s snake which he trained to kill others turned on him and killed him. In Lamb to the Slaughter it is not as prominent. In the last line Mary Maloney begins to “giggle” when the detectives say the vital clue is probably “under their nose.” This is a bizarre moment of the story, and is quite weird. She seems happy her husband is dead and that she got away with it, not caring that a human life has been lost.
I personally think that “Lamb to the Slaughter is a more compelling read, as it has bizarre twists, such as feeding the detectives the leg of lamb, the murder weapon. I think the Speckled band is a straight forward typical murder mystery story, as we have to wait to find out who the murderer is and there are suspects the whole way through, where as in Lamb to the Slaughter. We know who the murder is and we are just waiting to see if Mary Maloney gets caught and what happens to her. It is very thought provoking and the reader thinks about the story after they have read it, where as “the Speckled Band” is just a simple read that has no complexity whatsoever.
Matthew Malkin 11K2 1048 WORDS
