Lamb to the Slaughter

Short Tastes - Your personal guide to the world of short stories

Writer: Roald Dahl

Year of Publication:1953

Genre: Thriller

Plot Summary: 

Mary Maloney, a young woman in 20th century England, expects her husband Patrick to return home from his job as a detective for the local police. When he returns, Mary notices that he is strangely aloof and assumes that he was tired from work. After blatantly ignoring her, Patrick finally reveals (to Mary; the information is kept from the reader, although it is insinuated that he wants to leave her) what it is that is making him act strangely.

Seemingly in a trance, Mary fetches a large leg of lamb from the deep-freeze in the cellar to cook for their dinner, apparently trying to restore a sense of normality. Patrick angrily tells Mary not to make him any dinner, as he is going out. She then strikes Patrick in the back of the head with the frozen lamb leg, killing him. Now she tries to conceal her act.

Comments:
We have been closely acquainted with Roald Dahl's merry and cute children's stories like Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Twits, James & The Giant Peach, etc., but few of us get to know the other side of our favourite author. When it comes to writing on the Dark Side, Dahl is a complete Darth Vader. Who knew?


Excerpt:

He had now become absolutely motionless, and he kept his head down so that the light from the lamp beside him fell across the upper part of his face, leaving the chin and mouth in shadow.  She noticed there was a little muscle moving near the corner of his left eye.

“This is going to be a bit of a shock to you, I’m afraid,” he said.  “But I’ve thought about it a good deal and I’ve decided the only thing to do is tell you right away.  I hope you won’t blame me too much.”

And he told her.  It didn’t take long, four or five minutes at most, and she sat very still through it all, watching him with a kind of dazed horror as he went further and further away from her with each word.      

Click here to read the entire story!

Alfred Hitchcock produced and directed a television version of the story, and though it did not remain exactly true to the original storyline, it still is popular among the classics.

Watch it here