Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl (1916-1990) Biography Roald Dahl was a famous short stories writer and one of the most successful children 's writers all the time. He was born on 13th September, 1916 in Llandaff, South Wales. He served as pilot in British Royal Air Force through the World War 2. Roald Dahl began writing in the 1940s, his first short story was published in a newspaper about his air crash. He went on to write another stories for other newspapers and magazines, and The New Yorker was one of them. Dahl wrote his first children 's story in 1942, The Gremlins, for Disney. The story was not successful, so he returned to writing mysterious and macabre stories for adult readers. Roald Dahl wrote two autobiographies, two novels, nineteen children 's stories, and many short story assemblages. He died of leukemia on November 23, 1990 in Oxford at the age of 74. (www.biography.com) Setting and Summary Mary Maloney is a woman who murders her husband. Six months pregnant, waits for her husband detective Patrick Maloney to return home. In the living room Mary waiting eagerly for her husband, she watches the clock with a big smile because they usually dines out on Thursday nights. Her husband Patrick come home that night strangely moody, he takes a strong drink not as usual. Mary recognizes that Patrick maybe too tired, so she offers to cook dinner, in spite of her advanced pregnancy. Patrick seems nervous by his wife 's urgency on being useful. He asks her to