The curious incident of the dog in the night-time

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time is a mystery novel written by Mark Haddon.

In this book the main character and the narrator of the story is Christopher Boone who is 15 years old and has Asperger Syndrome. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns and the truth but he hates yellow and brown.

One night Christopher finds Mrs Shears’ dog, Wellington, murdered. Mrs Shears is his neighbour. When he approaches his neighbour’s house he sees that there is a garden fork sticking out of the dog. Christopher pulls it out and hugs the dog. Just then Mrs Shear appears and she starts shouting at Christopher since she thinks he has killed Wellington. When the police arrive they ask Christopher too many questions and too quickly. Consequently he rolls back onto the lawn and presses his forehead to the ground because there is too much information coming into his head from the outside world. A policeman takes hold of his arm and lifts him onto his feet but Christopher doesn’t like being touched so he hits the policeman.

At the police station Christopher’s father makes him promise he will stay out of trouble. However he still wants to know who killed Wellington and, besides that he is writing a book about the murder so he is continuously asking his neighbours about the incident.

Nevertheless Christopher discovers an amazing secret that his father had kept hidden for a long time.

I think this book is easy to read but hard to put down. Not only is it a gripping and fast-moving novel, but it also raises many interesting questions, such as how different life would be if a member of your family had Asperger Syndrome.

By Soraya Suárez. Advanced Level. Year 2