Thursday, September 10, 2015

Lamb to the Slaughter and other stories

Author: Roald Dahl
Stars: 4
Review by: MandyApgar

Read this for Lamb and ignore the four others. Two stories are set in England, one in the country, and another during the great war. The titular tale, one of the works about which Dahl was most proud, is the classic later popularized by Alfred Hitchcock as a Presents episode. Mary Maloney, a pregnant housewife, a dumped by her husband for another woman shortly after he returns home one day. She reacts with what is at hand - a leg of lamb - and smacks him, at which point Patrick falls down stone dead. Mary then, after considering her options, decides to stage the scene to make it look like Patrick was killed by a lover. And she, unlike in the TV show, actually gets away with it - complete with her giving a childlike giggle at the end as she ponders Patrick's co-workers devouring the murder weapon.

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