The curious incident of the dog in the
night-time
Author: Mark Haddon
Genre: Psychiatry & psychology
Publisher location: London
Name of publisher: Vintage
Year published: 1st time: 2003. Book read by me: 2004.
Number of Pages: 272
First sentence
It was 7 minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of
the lawn in front of Mrs Shears’ house.
Summary
Christopher, an autistic boy, discovers that the neighbour’s dog, Wellington, is
dead. The dog belonged to Mr and Mrs Shears. The boy decides to investigate
who killed the dog and to write a detective book about it. The police say they
won’t investigate the case. The boy was aggressive towards the police officer, so
they had to take him away to the police station. Later his father comes to take
him home. Christopher tells his father he intends to find out who killed the dog,
but father is against it. Siobhan, his teacher at the special school, encourages
him to write a book. His father doesn’t know about it. He begins to be a
“detective ” in spite of what his father told him. Although Christopher is very
afraid of the strangers, he puts himself together and asks some of his neighbours
if they knew who killed the dog. One of the neighbours, Mrs Alexander, is very
friendly to him and she invites him in for a drink, but Christopher gets scared
soon and runs away.
Christopher wants to prove that he is clever and because he is very good at math
he wants to take an A-level in math. Christopher’s father gets a call from Mrs
Shears. She tells him that his son was in her garden. Christopher explains why he
went to Mrs Shears. He says it’s because Mr Shears is the prime suspect because
he was divorced from Mrs Shears, so he could have killed the dog in order to hurt
Mrs Shears. But father didn’t want to hear Mr Shears name mentioned in his
house. Father gets angry with Christopher and forbids him again to investigate
further. Christopher promises to listen to his father and usually he never breaks
his promises. So he stops writing the book. But five days later he sees five red
cars in a row, and it is like a sign to him that that day would be “a super special
day” and that something special was going to happen.
After school he meets Mrs Alexander and has a chat with her. The boy decides to
ask her about Mr Shears since his father never forbade him to mention that name
outside the house. She doesn’t want to say much and says that Christopher
knows why his father doesn’t like Christopher mentioning Mr Shears. He says he
doesn’t and keeps on asking her, so she tells him that Mr Shears had a
relationship with his mother. The boy decides to continue his book.
One day Christopher’s father finds the book and gets angry because he talked to
Mrs Alexander. They have a fight and the father takes the book from him and
hides it. Next day after school he starts to look for his book. He finds it in the
night-time
Author: Mark Haddon
Genre: Psychiatry & psychology
Publisher location: London
Name of publisher: Vintage
Year published: 1st time: 2003. Book read by me: 2004.
Number of Pages: 272
First sentence
It was 7 minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of
the lawn in front of Mrs Shears’ house.
Summary
Christopher, an autistic boy, discovers that the neighbour’s dog, Wellington, is
dead. The dog belonged to Mr and Mrs Shears. The boy decides to investigate
who killed the dog and to write a detective book about it. The police say they
won’t investigate the case. The boy was aggressive towards the police officer, so
they had to take him away to the police station. Later his father comes to take
him home. Christopher tells his father he intends to find out who killed the dog,
but father is against it. Siobhan, his teacher at the special school, encourages
him to write a book. His father doesn’t know about it. He begins to be a
“detective ” in spite of what his father told him. Although Christopher is very
afraid of the strangers, he puts himself together and asks some of his neighbours
if they knew who killed the dog. One of the neighbours, Mrs Alexander, is very
friendly to him and she invites him in for a drink, but Christopher gets scared
soon and runs away.
Christopher wants to prove that he is clever and because he is very good at math
he wants to take an A-level in math. Christopher’s father gets a call from Mrs
Shears. She tells him that his son was in her garden. Christopher explains why he
went to Mrs Shears. He says it’s because Mr Shears is the prime suspect because
he was divorced from Mrs Shears, so he could have killed the dog in order to hurt
Mrs Shears. But father didn’t want to hear Mr Shears name mentioned in his
house. Father gets angry with Christopher and forbids him again to investigate
further. Christopher promises to listen to his father and usually he never breaks
his promises. So he stops writing the book. But five days later he sees five red
cars in a row, and it is like a sign to him that that day would be “a super special
day” and that something special was going to happen.
After school he meets Mrs Alexander and has a chat with her. The boy decides to
ask her about Mr Shears since his father never forbade him to mention that name
outside the house. She doesn’t want to say much and says that Christopher
knows why his father doesn’t like Christopher mentioning Mr Shears. He says he
doesn’t and keeps on asking her, so she tells him that Mr Shears had a
relationship with his mother. The boy decides to continue his book.
One day Christopher’s father finds the book and gets angry because he talked to
Mrs Alexander. They have a fight and the father takes the book from him and
hides it. Next day after school he starts to look for his book. He finds it in the
