Book Review - Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

 Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

By: Mark Haddon

 

Would you read a detective fiction story where the victim is a dog? What if the narrator of the story is a 15-year-old boy who has Asperger’s Syndrome? This book is all of that and much more. Published in 2003, Mark Haddon brings the story of Christopher Boone who tries his hands at detective work inspired by his favourite character Sherlock Holmes when his neighbour’s dog is found dead with a garden fork inside him.

Christopher doesn’t understand emotions, so he thinks animals are better company than humans. He dislikes everything yellow and brown and loves spending time with his rat Toby. He is great at Mathematics and knows all the countries in the world with their capital but what he doesn’t know is the grief, lies and truth of his parent’s marriage. On the journey to find the murderer, he discovers buried skeletons of his life and his mother’s death.

This book is an easy read that seeps down and touches the most vulnerable part of you. The innocent viewpoint from which this book is written leaves you with a smile at the end. Mark’s idea of using doodles, shapes, pictures and the way of numbering the chapter gives the reader a great insight into an autistic brain. It is a refreshing and fun read despite it being a murder mystery. I would recommend this book to anyone from a teenager to an adult and guarantee you to be hooked.