Discussion of Murder Mysteries

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Murder mysteries have a motive to start off the investigation. Murder

mysteries always have detectives, murder/ killing, alibi´s, victims,

weapons, evidence, a twist in a tail, a bit of suspense or maybe a lot

of suspense. The location and the setting are some of main factors for

a murder mysteries. If a murder mystery doesn´t contain any of these,

it cannot be defined as a murder mystery.

Lamb to the Slaughter was written by Roald Dahl. It was first

published in 1954. Lamb to the Slaughter is written in speech of time

the story was published. In Lamb to the Slaughter the use of present

day modern language so automatically gives the impression that it is

written in present day modern and now. Roald Dahl is more famous for

writing children´s story. Roald Dahl always writes about ordinary

people who get involved in difficult situations for his stories for

adults. Lamb to the Slaughter is more prominent as an adults story.

This is a murder mystery and one of the two short stories that I am

going to investigate.

The other short story which I will be investigating is The Speckled

Band. The Speckled Band was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was

first published in 1892. The Speckled Band is also written in speech

of the time the Speckled Band was first Published. The language of

that time seemed to be much formal as accurate English and much less

slang was used. Holmes and Watson speak very typically English and

p...

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... manner that the reader´s suspension of

disbelief is never broken. We are with Mary Maloney from the first

sentence of the story, and only at the end do we realise that we never

really knew her at all. The irony of it all is that the police who

were puzzled why they could not find the murder weapon we are

consuming it. This was almost a sick comical twist to the ending. When

she laughs didn´t seem funny but more sinister and evil. Compare The

Speckled Band, Lamb to the Slaughter is easy to work out from the

Speckled Band and more predictable. So if you are looking for a

challenge The Speckled Band is the one to read but I think for the

younger reader´s Lamb to the Slaughter would be better. The Speckled

was much more complicated and had much more twists and turns in it,

and you weren´t sure what was going to come next.

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