Mark Haddon is one of Britain's most known authors. His novel, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," from 2003 was published in 35 different countries and it sold 2.6 millions copies only in Britain, which makes it the third best selling novel of the decade. After graduating from university Mark Haddon had several sporadic jobs, one of them was at a daycare for mentally and physically challenged children, including autism. He has later said that this inspired him to write The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
The story takes place in a small town named Swindon in England. One night, the 15 years old narrator of the book, Christopher Francis Boone, finds the murdered body of his neighbor's poodle, Wellington. He sets out on a journey to uncover the killer. It is not specified in the book, but the reader understands that he has a mild form of autism or Asperger syndrome, which at times aid and at other times hamper his investigation. In his search, Christopher discovers that the mystery has a more tangled plot than he first expected, when he finds out that his father had a romantic relationship with Mrs. Shears, the owner of the dead dog. He subsequently learns that their relationship was a reaction to another affair, one between Mr. Shears and his mother, who has disappeared. One evening, in his search for new clues, Christopher finds a box full of letters, form his supposedly lost mother. .
The novel starts in medias res. Christopher discovers the neighbor's dog dead on the ground. Already in the first chapter it becomes clear that the narrator is struggling with a condition, perhaps a mild for of autism. He struggles to understand the situation he is in and he is not able to reason the same way a normal person would. "I decided that the dog was probably killed with the fork because I could not see any other wounds in the dog and I do not think you would stick a garden fork into a dog after it had died for some other reason, like cancer for example or a road accident.
