Wider reading

The two stories I will be comparing in this essay are Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl and The Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Lamb to the Slaughter was written in 1954 while The Speckled Band was written in 1892. Already we see a difference, they were both written in different centuries. Lamb to the Slaughter is a far more modern story in contrast to The Speckled Band, therefore, we can relate to it more easily. The Speckled Band is a Victorian crime story with Sherlock Holmes, a detective who solves murders. Lamb to the Slaughter is a modern short story with a twist.

The two stories are similar because of their genre. They are both murder / crime stories. However, The Speckled Band is a traditional murder mystery while Lamb to the Slaughter doesn’t fit that description. In Lamb to the Slaughter we find out who the killer is immediately, unlike in The Speckled Band, where we find out at the end.

In these stories, both murders take place in a house. But due to ...