Comparing Lamb to the Slaughter to The Speckled Band Essay -- English

Comparing dearest to the Slaughter to The Speckled Band beloved to the Slaughter and The Speckled Band are both finish offmysteries. Like most murder mysteries each of the stories have amurderer, a victim and characters acting in a suspicious or unusualway.Lamb to the Slaughter is a 20th century story about a fair sex calledMary who kills her husband, Patrick Mal stary, using a leg of give birth. Thisseems quite surprising at world-class as she seems quite loving and devotedto him- she loved to piddle away in the presence of this man. Howevera lot of Mary Maloneys doings in the first scene does seem quiteworrying and peculiar. It seems that she is closely obsessed with herhusband and this is shown by the way she is constantly trying to gratify him. Although the murder is a crime of passion Mrs Maloneymanages to deal with it quite well. She is genuinely calculating whenrealising quite what she has done and providing herself with aconvincing alibi. When the detectives arrive to investigate the murderthey seem to be taking it real seriously, however they dont reallyseem to consider Mrs Maloney as a real suspect. There is one point inthe story where one of the detectives saysacted quite normal genuinely cheerful impossible that she but this isan idea which is soon discarded. After a while the attitude of thedetectives becomes much relaxed and not so professional. Mrs Maloneytakes advantage of this by asking the detectives to stay for dinner.She then goes on to feed them the leg of lamb thus destroying theevidence. There is a moment of irony towards the end because when public lecture about the murder weapon one of the detectives saysProbably right under our really nose just as they are eating the legof lamb. ... ...and and Lamb to the Slaughter arevery diverse. In Lamb to the Slaughter Mr and Mrs Maloney both livedin a warm and clean home. The atmosphere is of a well-chosen and contenthousehold. In The Speckled Band the murder takes place in an old ,grey, pitfall house. The setting seems colder and emptier. The fact thatRoylott keeps animals such as cheetahs and baboons adds a darker addsa more sinister feel to the story. This is more typical of a murder mystery story but it may not have seemed so unusual when it was firstwritten in the 19th century. I think the author of Lamb to theSlaughter wants the reader to see Mrs Maloney as quite cunning anddeceitful. He does this by showing that Mrs Maloney can use the factthat she was married to Mr Maloney and that she is six months with child(predicate)to her advantage. Holmes would probably not have fallen into this sametrap.