Comparing short stories- lamb to the slaughter and the speckled band Es

Comparing short stories- lamb to the slaughter and the speckled band ==================================================================== Lamb to the Slaughter' was written by Roald Dahl in 1954 shortly after the Second World War. Roald Dahl is famous for writing children's stories, like Charlie and the chocolate factory and James and the Giant Peach. Roald Dahl also writes stories for adults. Lamb to the slaughter is a fine example of an adult murder mystery story. Lamb to the slaughter is about a housewife waiting for her husband to come. When he does return home, he gives her bad news. Dazed by this news, she goes to the freezer to cook lamb for their supper but without warning strikes her husband over the head with it. She then goes to her local shop to create an Alibi. When the police come round to investigate she offers them the lamb which she killed her husband with. And without knowing it is the murder weapon the police eat the leg of lamb, destroying the evidence. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 'The Speckled Band' in 1892. His stories are about the famous detective Sherlock Holmes set in late Victorian and early Edwardian England. The speckled band is about a man, Doctor Grimesby Roylott who tries to kill his stepdaughters using a poisonous snake to climb through a ventilator and down a bell rope so that he does not have to pay for their weddings with the inheritance that his late wife gave him. Sherlock Holmes and his companion Doctor Watson investigate this crime and prevent Doctor Roylott's stepdaughter, Helen Stoner from being killed by staying in her bedroom and hitting the snake. But the snake went back into Doctor Roylott's room, biting and killing him. In lamb to the slaughter, Dahl m... ...y we do not find out what happened until the end of the story. These stories are also similar because they both have victims Patrick Maloney being one and Helen Stoner being the other. They both have murderers; Mary Maloney murdered her husband. Dr. Roylott did not directly murder Julia stoner but as he planned for a snake to kill her, he is still the murderer. They both have detectives; Sherlock Holmes and Jack Noonan ---------------------------------------------------------- Murder mysteries have changed a lot since Victorian times. Now there is technology that could pick things up for example the poison of the snake could not be detected in the speckled band but if it were in the time of lamb to the slaughter, scientists would probably have picked that up. Women would not be likely to be murders in Victorian times but now that is quite common.