Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, was the second book chosen by the Angels book club.

The story follows Christopher, a highly intelligent teenager, who suffers from severe autism. When, one night, he finds the neighbours dog dead on the front lawn, he sets out to uncover the killer. Christopher, with his heightened sense of logic is a natural born Sherlock Holmes. He keeps a record of his discoveries in a story that he is writing for his social worker, numbering the chapters by Prime Numbers, which highlights his obsession with order, numbers and maths. But as his detective skills prove to be very effective and he digs deeper into the mystery, he uncovers secrets about his family, which change the path of his life.

Haddon’s account of Christopher makes this book a challenging but intriguing read. The story is written from Christophers point of view, meaning that you have to look at things a little differently. For example, when Christopher is explaining why he “groans”, although this behaviour would not make sense to an onlooker, Haddons description captures the logic of it in Christophers mind.

During the book club meeting we discussed the themes of the book. We were impressed by Haddons portrayal of Autism and his ability to capture a different way of thinking and seeing the world. He perfectly describes Christophers first venturing out into a world that he doesn’t know, capturing a fear of the unknown that we are all familiar with on some level, but presenting it through the eyes of a boy who doesn’t understand emotion and who’s behaviour is greatly misunderstood by others.

Overall, the book was enjoyed by the group and received a score of 7/10, continuing an early trend of high scores.