History Literature / TheCuriousIncidentOfTheDogInTheNightTime

--> And the logician says, “No. There are cows in Scotland of which one at least is brown.” \\
--> And the mathematician says, “No. There is at least one cow in Scotland, of which one side appears to be brown.”\\
--> And it is funny because economists are not real scientists, and because logicians think more clearly, but mathematicians are best.

* OutgrowingTheChildishName: Inverted; Christopher used to refer to his parents as Mummy and Daddy, but as a teenager he calls them Mother and Father.
* ProperlyParanoid: Christopher says that Wellington's killer must have either wanted to hurt the dog or hurt Mrs. Shears, and according to statistics someone who kills animals will start on people next. [[spoiler:While Ed doesn't kill anyone else after hurting Wellington, Christopher is right on suspecting that Ed did it to hurt Mrs. Shears, and is horrified when he learns. The police also keep Ed from seeing Christopher in London when the latter makes it to his mother's place after they learn what happened]].

* MontyHallProblem: Christopher explains the Monty Hall problem to the reader, using a tree diagram to illustrate all the different ways it can play out and the odds of each possible outcome.

* {{Meganekko}}: Siobhan.

* StaticCharacter: Despite Haddon's insistence that the book is more about Christopher's differing perspective than any specific disorder, he never really gets any characterization beyond his almost cartoonishly extreme UsefulNotes/AspergersSyndrome.

* BlindWithoutEm: Only mentioned in passing but Siobhan, the narrator Christopher's favourite teacher, wears glasses thick enough to induce headaches when 20/20 people wear them. Also counts as an example of Main/GlassesCuriosity.

* NonIndicativeName: Crhistopher knows he was named after the GentleGiant saint who purportedly carried the young Jesus across a river (which is literally what "Christopher" means: it's the Greek for "Christ's bearer"), and that his parents picked the name for its general association with kindness and helpfulness, but Christopher himself doesn't feel his name describes him at all, at least in that "kind and helpful" isn't quite what come to mind when he is spoken of.

%%* INeedAFreakingDrink: Ed does this a couple of times.

* SolarPoweredMagnifyingGlass When in the holding cell at the police station (for assaulting a cop because he was overstimulated by being touched), Christopher mulls possibly using his glasses to start a solar fire]] à la ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' (which, again, [[ArtisticLicensePhysics got it wrong]] because it only works for farsighted glasses, so Chris' glasses would have to be farsighted too) and escape by being removed from the cell.

* AloneWithThePsycho: An unusual example, but this technically applies to the moment when Christopher's father catches him reading [[spoiler: his still-living mother's letters]], and due to having betrayed Christopher's trust, is forced to confess that [[spoiler: [[WhamLine he murdered Wellington]]]].[[note]]Certainly his father must seem even more of a psycho from Christopher's point of view, given that he both [[spoiler: lied about his mother's death ''and'' killed a dog, especially since Christopher relates better to dogs than most people]].[[/note]]

** While Christopher is clearly meant to be somewhere on the autistic spectrum, it never says in the novel what exactly he is diagnosed with, if anything, though it could be...

* ClusterFBomb: Lots of them.

* INeedAFreakingDrink: Ed does this a couple of times.

* KidDetective / AmateurSleuth: What Christopher wishes to become. (Besides becoming an astronaut.)

* NonIndicativeName: What Christopher thinks of his own name. He knows he was named after the GentleGiant saint who purportedly carried the young Jesus across a river (which is literally what "Christopher" means: it's the Greek for "Christ's bearer"), and that his parents picked the name for its general association with kindness and helpfulness, but Christopher himself doesn't feel his name describes him at all, at least in that "kind and helpful" isn't quite what come to mind when he is spoken of.

* PhotographicMemory: Or, more precisely, ''Cinematographic'' Memory — Christopher compares his memory to a video reel and frequently uses video similes ([[InsistentTerminology not metaphors]]) to illustrate his memory functions. If he blacks out at one point, he speaks of having his memory-tape erased; if he tries to recall something, he simply "rewinds" or "searches" through his mental archives to find relevant information (including how to respond to people having ConvulsiveSeizures). He also speaks of playing and pausing previous memories like video clips in his head.
** Most importantly, due to his inability to filter sensory information normally, he can recall practically ''every'' visual detail of any given scene, even going years back. When, for instance, Christopher revisits a farmland scene with a few cows, he remembers the number of cows, their skin patterns, the shape of the field, the details of a nearby village, the different kinds of litter at his feet, and so on.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: The main reason why [[spoiler: Christopher's mother left him, feeling unable to cope with an autistic child.]]

* SirSwearsALot: Christopher's father, to the point where some of his lines resemble a ClusterFBomb.

* NerdGlasses: Christopher mentions wearing glasses a few times. He rarely seems to wear them, though—the only major mention of them is at the start of the novel, where he muses about possibly using them to start a solar fire à la ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' and escape from the holding cell at the police station. (Which would only work if he was farsighted, which ''Lord of the Flies'' [[ArtisticLicensePhysics infamously got wrong]].)

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Christopher ''loves'' strawberry milkshakes and mentions them several times in the book. He's also fond of the Indian food Gobi Aloo Sag, though as it is yellow he has to put red food coloring in it before eating. (One wonders how he tried it in the first place … possibly his parents surprised him by feeding it to him with his eyes shut?)

* DissonantSerenity: While real autistics tune out or even blackout when overloaded or having a meltdown/shutdown, Christopher calmly narrates his. Possibly averted in that he is writing a book, and may be describing what others have told him about what he does.

* RealityEnsues:
** At the beginning, a policeman grabs Christopher by the arm and Christopher (due to how he HatesBeingTouched) hits him, and he gets promptly arrested for assault. He gets a warning when the police sergeant finds out that he has a disability, and Christopher next time warns a policeman at the train station to not touch him because he doesn't want to get arrested again.
** When Christopher finds out that [[spoiler:Ed killed Wellington]], he is terrified because he feels he can't trust [[spoiler:his father]] any more because of how he lied about not only that but the fact that [[spoiler:he told Christopher his mother was dead, which she wasn't.]]
** [[spoiler:When Judy finds out that Ed told Christopher she was dead, she is furious and treats him to a WhatTheHellHero. Also works the other way, as Ed tells Judy that writing letters to Christopher is no substitute for actually looking after him after she walked out on them both.]]
** Christopher also believes that Wellington's killer should go to jail. [[spoiler:It turns out that, thanks to the law, his father will only get punished if Mrs. Shears presses charges, and she would rather not do so. Killing a person would mean jail time, but a dog matters less]].

** Although this does raise the question of how he's able to watch ''The Blue Planet'', [[AnichronismStew which wasn't broadcast until 2001]].

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: In-universe. To most people in the town and the law, killing Wellington would be a pretty disgusting KickTheDog (no pun intended) moment but not quite the MoralEventHorizon; in fact, [[spoiler:Judy tells Christopher that unless Mrs. Shears presses charges,his father won't go to jail]]. To Christopher, it is as serious as killing a human being and [[spoiler:his father is a murderer and Christopher must escape from the house because his father could kill anyone, including him]].

* DeadpanSnarker: Christopher claims to have no sense of humour but is given to moments of dry, sardonic wit, an example being: "I think dogs are more interesting than some people. Steve who goes to be school for instance needs help to eat his food and could not even fetch a stick. Siobhan tells me not to say this to Steve's mother."

** He discusses several maths problems in his book, including the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem Monty Hall problem]];

* HardOnSoftScience: Despite Christopher having almost NoSenseOfHumour, he does enjoy one joke about inductive reasoning, because it shows a mathematician showing up an economist, and as he puts it, "economists aren't real scientists".

* INeverGotAnyLetters: [[spoiler: Ed is hiding letters from Christopher.]]

* ItsAllAboutMe: Christopher, his mother and Mr and Mrs. Shears (downplayed in that Mrs.Shears just doesn't want to help Christopher to the point of being his mom).
* JerkAss: Mr. Shears [[spoiler: cheats on his wife with a married woman and then breaks up with said married woman days after her son arrives.]] His wife is no better. Judy and Ed are not that much better; [[spoiler: Ed has serious anger issues and [[KickTheDog killed Welllington]], and Judy abandoned both her husband and her son.]], but to a fault, they utmost do care about their son and try to reconcile with him.

** It outrages Christopher that after he finds out that [[spoiler:his father]] killed Wellington, they won't even get punished for it because they'll only do it if Mrs. Shears presses charges. Dogs tend to be innocent where the affairs of humans are involved, and that Wellington had nothing to do with [[spoiler: Ed and Judy's maternal problems or the tribulations of raising an autistic child. (Though Christopher's father, during TheReveal, admits that it was a purely impulsive action happening at the height of his anger and frustration, and he didn't actually blame Wellington)]]

* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Sort of; namely, Murder of the dog Wellington → [[spoiler:"Fraud", in the form of Ed lying to Christopher that Judy died, by hiding her letters to him]]. The former's only indirectly related to the latter, however, and from Christopher's point of view, killing a dog is in no way a ''minor'' crime.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: AntiVillain in this case: [[spoiler:Ed confiscating Christopher's notebook of his investigation leads to Chris finding his mother's letters while searching for his book, which in turn leads to him learning that his mother is alive that that Ed lied about her death. Ed then makes matters worse by confessing that he killed Wellington, which is TheLastStraw for Christopher, who runs away to find his mother]].
* ProperlyParanoid: Christopher says that Wellingotn's killer must have either wanted to hurt the dog or hurt Mrs. Shears, and according to statistics someone who kills animals will start on people next. [[spoiler:While Ed doesn't kill anyone else after hurting Wellington, Christopher is right on suspecting that Ed did it to hurt Mrs. Shears, and is horrified when he learns. The police also keep Ed from seeing Christopher in London when the latter makes it to his mother's place after they learn what happened]].

** Although this does raise the question of how he's able to watch ''The Blue Planet'', which wasn't broadcast until 2001.

* OhCrap: Ed, upon realising that Christopher has read the letters from his mother and knows she is still alive.
* ParentsAsPeople: To the point were it might as well be called "parents as people, the book". Christopher's father tries really hard to raise his son despite his disorder not making it easy on top of [[spoiler:having his wife leaving with another man]] and he is the ''dutiful one''.

** Involves an actual dog. [[spoiler:After Christopher's pet rat Toby dies, Ed, desperately wanting to make things up to Christopher after everything that has happened, gets him a present, a Golden retriever puppy, and says that Christopher can name him. The trope is then literally invoked when Christopher strokes the puppy, which he decides to call Sandy]].

* ReplacementGoldfish: As part of his MustMakeAmends, Ed [[spoiler: buys a new puppy for Christopher, as a peace offering after revealing he killed Wellington. Although technically the dog is also meant to replace Toby, Christopher's pet rat, who died of old age (rats only live to around two years)]].

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: ''Silver Blaze'', a SherlockHolmes mystery (full quote at FairPlayWhodunnit).

* ExactWords / LoopholeAbuse: When Christopher's father admonishes him to drop the investigation into Wellington's murder, Christopher carefully picks apart his father's words and deduces that, literally speaking, Ed has not expressly forbidden him from talking to his neighbour Mrs Alexander, although Christopher clearly isn't supposed to be asking her about the murder. His father even points out he still disobeyed, as he ''did'' also say to stop interrogating people (although he used a more colorful version but so did he when he asked him to stop asking about who killed the "fucking" dog) which makes Christopher so scared he has problem remembering what happened.