Comparison of Lamb to the Slaughter and The Speckled Band

Comparison of Lamb to the Slaughter and The Speckled Band

Suspense has an important part to play in the murder mystery genre.

Most murder mysteries

are based on detectives; this creates suspense and appeals to the

readers more. Both stories I have studied are from the murder mystery

genre and both create suspense but in two very similar ways. Arthur

Conan Doyle wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories in the late 1800's.

Roald Dahl wrote 'Lamb to the Slaughter' in 1950, it was from a

collection of short stories that Roald Dahl has also written.

'Lamb to the Slaughter' is about a man, Patrick Maloney who is going

to leave his wife. His wife, Mary Maloney goes downstairs, gets a leg

of lamb from the freezer and hits him over the head with it, killing

him. The police investigate and Mary feeds the police the cooked leg

of lamb and therefore the evidence has been eaten up.

In 'The Speckled Band' a girl called Julia dies whilst sleeping and a

few years later her sister, Helen Stoner must sleep in her room whilst

her room is having some work done on it. Helen is worried because of

her sister's unexplained death so she goes to see Sherlock Holmes for

him to investigate. Holmes catches the murderer who turns out to be

Helen's stepfather but he is dead because the snake that he trained to

kill his stepdaughter's recoils upon him and kills him.

The victims in these two stories are Mary Maloney and Patrick Maloney

in 'Lamb to the Slaughter' and in 'The Speckled Band' Helen and Julia

Stoner and Dr Roylott.

The authors of both stories illustrate the victims in similar ways. In

'The Speckled Band' Helen Stoner is shown as a typical victim, "her