The Spotted Gang and The Lamb to the Slaughter are both a comparison of two short stories in the murder mystery genre. The Spotted Band was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (in 1892 and was published the following year). The Lamb to the Slaughter was written by the famous Roald Dahl (in 1953). Arthur was a Scottish doctor and writer, he wrote a series of books featuring Sherlock Holmes and his companion Kick Dr. Watson. The stories were a great success, even the spotted band was one of his adventurous chronicles. The Lamb to the Slaughter was a story written for older children and it was satisfying too. Roald Dahl was an author and intelligence officer, best known for his great storytelling. His short stories are known for their unexpected endings and his children's books for their unsentimental, often dark humor. Such a crime story is a narrative about a murder and how the murder is discovered. The following things usually happen or are present in a murder mystery: investigation, red leads, tension, detection, solutions, resolution, and justice. They have a very gradual introduction in the context of the plot and characters, then slowly builds up to the insightful plot, with a conspiratorial twist, once it's over, everything is more likely to fall into place or you might even let it go like a cliff. -hanger.Other differences lie in the way the characters are depicted. In "Lamb to the Slaughter" the protagonist, Mary Maloney, is described as a quiet and peaceful person. The writer also specifies that she is pregnant "with a baby in the sixth month". With this description, you wouldn't think of Mary as a "typical killer." What people consider a typical murderer is someone like Grimsby Roylott who I... middle of paper... himself an unintended victim, so the story makes you feel like it achieved a certain irony in its ending, which turns out to be something atypical. Alternatively, in the Lamb to the Slaughter Mary revealed herself to be more devious and deceitful. She knew something about criminal activity as she was the wife of a police officer, she had planned and planned everything from creating an alibi to how she would behave after the crime. Considering Mary's unintentional act, I think she did not deserve to be punished for her actions. In conclusion, I prefer The Lamb To The Slaughter more than The Speckled Band, the reason being that the speckled band was more serious and also had more connections as well-rounded characters, while The Lamb To The Slaughter was full of suspense, thrills and humor dark and hidden, proving to be an entertaining read with a limited degree of reality.