A Black Pudding To Die For Analysis

“A black pudding to die for” is one of the elements in the unusual, yet amazing, short story by Stella Duffy. The short story takes you through a rollercoaster of emotions, filled with mysterious elements such as the obscure landlady Mrs. Lenton.
The owner of the boarding house, Mrs. Lenton is quite the mysterious lady. Neither is her boarding house probably not the place you want to be. She isn’t quite the ordinary lady. The short story reveals early on that she is a killer. This is shown in the quote “Mrs. Lenton did not actually set out to be killer. Nor does she see herself as such.” . The killings provide the blood, as the secret ingredient, in her famous and palatable black pudding. The quote also provides us with the information, that the killings are something that runs in the family. Her family have executed the killings as well, and since the blood is for the black

Lenton seems very strict. Some might call her old fashioned. Her boarding house needs to be kept spotless. Everything that breaks her perfect ideal goes on her nerves. She is extremely tidy. She is only herself, and only keeps the “Mrs.” to avoid any unwanted male company. Mrs. Lenton does, however, seem rather lonely. She only has one friend, which almost can’t be considered a friend. The presence of the mysterious landlady, adds a lot to the story, which leads us into the next point, dealing with the suspense in the story.
The story’s suspense goes up and down. The author of the story, Stella Duffy, elegantly uses literary devices to add flavor to the story. Hints are given early on, that the reader may only notice at the second or third read through, and foreshadowings are used in the story. A great example of a foreshadowing is on the last page in lines 166-177.
We know through the early hints that somebody is going to get murdered. Nevertheless we are also told that Mrs. Lenton has never killed more than one person at the same time. This makes it different than the usual