Detective Novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

A Detective Tale: An Introduction

A detective tale or novel is a genre of literature in which one of the characters commits a crime, and the plot revolves around identifying the perpetrator or prime suspect of the crime. The novel opens by describing the type of crime being looked into, identifying the likely suspect, and pointing out all the proof of the crime that points to a specific character. Therefore, reading detective novels requires the reader to be sufficiently inquisitive to gather and piece together evidence and attempt to unravel the riddle surrounding the crime. This therefore requires full attention of the reader while reading in order to solve the mystery presented by the author of the detective of mystery story. This paper therefore analyzes how detective novels are structured and how writers should write detective stories as well as what is expected of detective readers to engage themselves in so as to unravel the mystery presented in the detective stories.

Mystery Novels: A Puzzle to Solve

Mystery novels also known as detective novels/stories are like puzzles, the reader can work out the answer to the mystery even before the novel ends. The reader of the detective/mystery novels has the ability to identify the murderer among the characters presented in the novel since as it is expected, detective novels often tend to point out to the culprit of the murder though indirectly thus demanding of the reader to be so attentive and critical when reading and examining the novel. On the basis of the above notion about detective novels, it is also then required that the writers of the detective novels to structure their novels in a puzzle-like form so that the stories seek from the reader and answer that is concealed in the novel artistically for the reader to unravel the mystery behind it. the writers should also be careful not to plainly present the answer to the reader and should try and be creative enough in their presentation so as to maintain its reader to be eager to know what will unveil in the next chapter of the novel. The above assertion seems to be seconded by Haddon as seen in the quote “I do like murder mystery novels… in a murder mystery novel someone has to work out who the murderer is and catch them. It is a puzzle. If it is a good puzzle; you can sometimes work out the answer before the end of the book” (Haddon 5).

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: A Puzzle Unraveled

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon is a complete reflection of the argument made above that indeed a mystery novel/detective novel is a puzzle where an answer has to be worked out by the reader. The novel is about the murder of Mrs. Shears’ poodle which was found dead by one of the main characters, Christopher and the novel then revolves around solving the mystery behind who really was behind the killing of the dog. Throughout the novel, Christopher acts as the detective trying to unravel who indeed killed the dog since he was the one who found the dog dead. Mrs. Shears’ poodle is name Wellington and is therefore the central focus of the mystery with Christopher trying to reveal who was behind its murder. Ed Boone is Christopher’s father and the primary caregiver to Christopher, he seems to understand Christopher well and subjects control over him. When he comes to learn that Christopher is trying to find out who killed Mrs. Shears’ cat he is angry and mad at him. We later learn that that he was the killer of the dog that the reader had been subjected to finding out. As seen therefore in this novel, it is possible for the reader to unravel the mystery behind the crime committed in a detective novel even before the novel ends. It is therefore the obligation of the reader to be keen enough to realize and discover who the perpetrator of the crime.

The Structure of Detective Novels

The structure of a detective novel should be made in such a way that one event in the story leads to the other, this simply means that a mystery in one chapter should develop and continue in the next chapter of the story. The writer of a detective novel should ensure that the novel structure creates the eagerness and the urge from the reader and make the reader want to continue reading the story in order to find out what really transpired in the story and who the culprit of the crime presented in the novel is hence, a detective novel should be continuous in that one event leads to the other so as to capture the reader’s attention. This is seen in Haddon’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” where the reader is subjected to the urge to continue reading the novel as it is structured in a way that one chapter leads into the other and the writer ensures that a chapter leaves the reader in suspense so as to ensure that the urge and eagerness to continue to read the novel is created in the reader.

Unraveling Clues and Creating Suspense

The unravelling that Christopher’s father is behind the murder of the dog for example reveals another lie that Ed Boone had committed, the lie to his son that his mother was dead which we not true, this situation therefore creates another mystery of where Christopher’s mother might be if not dead and this the author uses in order to ensure the reader is eager to know whether this mystery is going to be solved thus continuing to engage in reading of the novel. This idea of how a detective novel should be structured is entailed in the following quote from Rzepka’s “Detective fiction” where the author is quoted saying “What the reader of detection desires at each step of the reading process is not its end, but its immediate continuation. He/she desires the next clue, and rarely more than the next for each new clue brings closer the end of the narrative, which is the end of the opportunities to invent, imaginative, backward looking arrays. ‘Reading for the plot’ of detection is not simply piec[ing] events together, one by one, on a common thread, as Holmes puts it. that may do for ordinary reading. Detection demands that we cast backwards as many different threads as possible, and try to hang all revealed […] each of them simultaneously (Rzepka 27).”

Chapter After Chapter: Chasing the Truth

A detection novels structure should be presented in a way that one chapter is dependent on the other for continuation, this is to say that the chapter that precedes the other should lead to this other chapter and that the next chapter depends on the chapter that preceded it for evidence and explanation on the mystery. In short the chapter that comes before the next chapter should give the reader a clue of what they should expect to be discussed in the next chapter.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: A Continuation

Mark Haddon’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the in the Night-time” is in alignment with the argument made above that indeed one chapter should lead into another and give a clue of what the next chapter entails. The clue of who is behind the death of the dog is presented in almost every chapter by the character, Christopher and this creates the urge in the reader to try and find out what happens in the chapters after the one they have read. The discovery of the killer of the dog being Christopher’s father and that that Ed Boone had lied of his wife’s death leaves the reader anticipating if the next chapter will try and solve the mystery behind where Christopher’s mother might actually be. Conan Doyle’s assertion in “The Adventure of the Dancing Men” seconds the argument highlighted above as seen in the following quote “You see, my dear Watson […] it is not really difficult to construct a series of inferences, each dependent upon its predecessors and each simple in itself. If after doing so, one simply knocks out all the central inferences and presents one’s audience with the starting point and the conclusion, one may produce a startling, though possibly a meretricious effect.”

Works Cited

Haddon, Mark, and Jeff Woodman. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. 2011.

Rzepka, Charles J. Detective Fiction. Polity, 2005.