The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

One night Christopher Boone finds his neighbour's dog, Wellington, has been killed with a garden fork. He decides to turn detective and find out who killed him, and why. Christopher has Asperger's Syndrome, so he sees things differently to many people.

The book is written as a diary, so everything we read is from Christopher's point of view. Readers have to guess what is going on without the usual clues from such things as facial expressions, because he's not adept at reading faces or knowing when he is being lied to.

Christopher's father is bringing him up alone since his mother's death two years ago. Christopher goes to a special school, although he is clearly very advanced in certain subjects. His mind is full of maths and science, and his narration keeps going off on tangents towards his favourite subjects. But people are not his speciality.

When his father finds out that he has been investigating the death of Wellington, he forbids Christopher from doing any more detective work. What is it that he doesn't want his son to find out? All is not as it appears with the Boone family and its neighbours.

Christopher, not one to let an outright ban get in the way of uncovering the truth, continues to investigate. But finding out brings problems of its own. With nothing but a pet rat for company, he finds himself going places and doing things that he would not have thought himself capable of.

Christopher hates being touched, and is likely to hit anyone who touches him. He's vulnerable, naive, and likely to be overwhelmed by too much information. So although most of the events wouldn't be a big adventure for many teenagers, for him they are life-changing.

This is a charming book, moving without being sentimental. Christopher is very believable as someone on the autistic spectrum, Mark Haddon has obviously researched the subject well and this is clear on every page. It's not as though this was written firstly as a murder-mystery, with Asperger's added later on as a personality trait. It is very informative about the problems someone with this invisible syndrome may face on a daily basis, and it's a book that manages to be uplifting and fascinating at the same time. It's a book that both young people and adults should enjoy, it has won a clutch of awards and deservedly so.