The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

By: Mark Haddon

INTRODUCTION

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is the story of Christopher Boone, a fifteen-year-old
boy with autism or a similar disability, who finds his neighbor's dog dead in her yard, stabbed with a
garden fork. Christopher decides that he wants to solve the mystery of who killed the dog.

Summary

The novel was written by author Mark Haddon in 2003, which tells the story of a 15-year-old boy from
Swindon called Christopher Boone who has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism. Following his
parents divorce, Christopher is now living with his dad. The story follows Christopher as he faces
difficult life challenges on his own. It is during this time that Christopher becomes curious about the
death of his neighbour’s dog Wellington, and decides to investigate it turning this into a murder
mystery book. Christopher started by speaking to his neighbours about anything suspicious they may
have seen relating to the death of Wellington. Although he knew the dangers of talking to strangers,
Christopher made an effort to try and find any clues from them. During the course of his investigation,
Christopher discovered a box of letters from his mum in his dad’s bedroom addressed to Christopher.
He realises at this point that his dad has been lying to him about her. Not longer after this,
Christopher discovered who actually killed the dog. With his mystery solved, he embarked on a secret
train journey to find his estranged mum, taking with him his pet rat Toby. Despite his parents
arguments over Christopher, he was driven back to Swindon by his mum to sit his Maths exam.
Nevertheless Christopher managed to achieve the Maths result he was hoping for, and his
relationship with his dad was slowly restored.

REVIEW/CRITIQUE

It doesn’t happen often that one describes a play as unlike anything they’ve seen before, but that is
just what The Curious Incident is. The set design consists of a huge five-sided cube which is opened
out to the audience and comes to life through lead character Christopher’s graphs and drawings. He
and other characters enter from doors that appear and retract, take props from drawers that open out,
close and disappear so that your curiosity is maintained, as you never know what the set could
become next. The lighting design is also expertly accomplished, but all these creative, immersive,
intrinsic designs would be pointless if the characters integrating in the environment aren’t similarly
vibrant.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion He uses most of the daily events in Christopher’s life, gives readers a chance to view
the image in their brains to interpret the novel. For instance, the story is based upon the murder
mystery of Wellington. Mrs. Shears’ dog in which Christopher carried on an investigation to discover
the person who is involved in such murder. He is diagnosed with the Autism and Asperger’s
Syndrome which may create in ability in social interactions, no fear of danger, avoids eye contact, etc.
As a result, when Christopher eventually discovers another mystery about his mother’s death, but
later then, two mysteries were revealed once Christopher’s father has confessed that he killed
Wellington that his mother is still alive. However, Christopher decides to leave from house and leave
to his mother to London as he believes it is safer to stay with and his father could be dangerous and
kill him because he killed Wellington.
 Book Review of
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night
Time

By: Mark Haddon

John Carlo C. Angeles

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