THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME by Mark Haddon

by Robin Gott
(Malmo, Sweden)

A friend of mine who hates reading recommended this mystery with a difference. She told me she liked it because it was "thin"!!!

Which may sound like it's an underfed little pooch of a book, but it most definitely isn't. Compared to the usual Rottweiler mystery novels, this book is a Whippet - sleek, fast and house-trained.

Add to this the three little twists to the tale and you've got a very unique breed of book.

The first twist is that the detective is Christopher Boone, a 15 year old boy with Asperger's Syndrome. The story is narrated from his point of view, and in chapter 7 we learn that he's "good at maths, but not good at people".

A social worker friend of mine, who works with kids with Asperger's told me she learnt more about Asperger's from reading this book than from all of her textbooks. And it was a lot more entertaining.

Twist two is the murder victim. You guessed it - it's a dog. Christopher finds the body of his neighbour's dog, impaled by a garden fork, on the lawn and decides to investigate. So, the book's not so much a whodunnit as a whodunnthedogin!

Which brings me to twist number three - the murderer.

Sorry, but if you think I'm going to give that away then you're barking up the wrong tree. Read the book and find out for yourself!