In this text, Roald Dahl never outright states the landlady's dark secret or reveals the fate of Billy and the other boys what is the effect of this? How does it contribute to the suspense of the story?

In "The Landlady" by Roald Dahl, we meet Billy, a boy who stays at a guesthouse in order to escape the cold. Dahl uses poetic devices, such as foreshadowing, throughout the text in order to indicate to us that there is something wrong with the landlady. This is meant to contribute to the suspense of the story.

While at times Billy wonders if something is wrong as well, he fails to realize it at the same time as the reader. The discrepancy between what the reader knows and what the character knows, and the fact that Dahl never states what happens to the character, force us to wonder about the different outcomes the story could have, contributing even more to the suspense of the story.