Bibliographical Information: Mark Haddon; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime; 2003

Summary: The Curious Incident of the dog in the Nighttime follows the story of Christopher, a 15-year-old autistic boy who is trying to find out who murdered his neighbour's dog. While investigating, he finds out the breathtaking truth about his mother, who "died" of heart disease, and the killer of Wellington (the dog).

Questions and Answers:

1) What was the relationship between Christopher's mother and Mr. Shears? How does this relate to who killed Wellington?

  Christopher's mother did not like her husband, a.k.a Christopher's father, Frank. She thought it would be appropriate to explore other possibilities for her romantic life, such as Mr. Shears.

<   Mr Shears, who was also unhappy with his marriage, agreed to become the lover of Christopher's mom. No one knew.

  Later, however, Frank found out. As he was not pleased with this relationship, Christopher's parents and the Shears' got divorced. Christopher's mother and Mr. Shears went to live in London together.

  Christopher's dad, convinced that his son would not be able to handle the truth about his mother, told Christopher that she had died of cardiac arrest, too quickly for Christopher to come in and see her.

   Frank felt that since him and Ms. Shears can relate, they should start dating. However, Ms. Shears does not feel the same way. That somehow lead to Frank believing that Ms. Shears loved her dog more than him, which made him quite upset. In his rage, Christopher's father goes out, in the middle of the night, and kills Wellington.