You have to admit, the book cover is cool–and eye-catching. That’s why I picked it up in the book store. But I bought it after I read the first page and knew I wanted to finish it. The first chapter number is 2 and the next is 3, followed by 5. The narrator does explain that.

We see all that happens and all that he thinks through the words of Christopher John Francis Boone, a special needs teenager, though we are not told directly what his needs are, though probably autism. In chapter 3 he writes, “I know all the counties of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,057.” He also makes it clear that he is a maths genius. Did I say the author is British?

Chris describes the book as a murder mystery and the solution comes at the end, but much of the story is, as is true of most mysteries, Chris’ struggle to find out why it happened. You might suspect that the book cover is a strong clue as to the murder victim.

This is a special story. Haddon is a gifted story-teller. If we are lucky, he may create another mystery for Chris to solve.

I give the curious incident of the dog in the night-time a 5-star rating.

Mike Lawrence