Is there an audiobook of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time?

Yes. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Jeff Woodman.

How long is the The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time audiobook?

The The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time audiobook runs 6 hr 2 min.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon book cover for the Book of the Day contemporary book review

Our score

4.1/ 5

Excellent

Listen to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

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EDITION PUBLISHEDMay 2004

Genres

Fiction Contemporary Literary Fiction

Themes

Family secrets and the lies told to childrenDifference, and how the world handles itLoneliness inside a familyIndependence and the terror of a first journey aloneTrust, once it has been broken

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Name: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Price: 5.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time hands the detective work to Christopher Boone, a fifteen-year-old who recites prime numbers, cannot bear being touched, and finds his neighbor's dog killed with a garden fork. A short, funny, disquieting novel that turns a family's secrets into a case its own narrator cannot crack.

The Review

Our take

Twenty-odd years on, the voice still works. Christopher John Francis Boone narrates his own detective story in flat declaratives, numbers his chapters with primes because he likes them better than the ordinary counting numbers, and stops mid-investigation to draw a diagram or walk you through the Monty Hall problem. He finds his neighbor's poodle dead on the lawn with a garden fork through it and decides to write a murder mystery about who did it. The book in your hands is that mystery. Haddon commits to the conceit without a single wink, and the payoff is a narrator who reports everything and understands almost none of it, so you assemble the real story over his shoulder while he is busy counting red cars.

That gap is the engine. Christopher records his father's silences, his mother's absence, a neighbor's odd tone, all at the same flat level of accuracy, and somewhere around the halfway mark you work out something terrible several chapters before he does. Then Haddon does the thing the novel is genuinely remembered for and puts Christopher alone on a train to London. The journey runs about fifty pages of ordinary British transit rendered as assault: signs, announcements, strangers' hands, a station map that will not hold still. It is the most sustained writing in the book, and I have never read a better case for why a crowded platform might be unsurvivable.

The reservations are real, and they have grown louder since 2003. The word autism never appears in the text, and readers have argued ever since about whether Christopher is a person or a set of traits arranged for narrative convenience: the savant arithmetic, the flat affect, the horror of being touched. Some autistic readers describe him as the first character who made sense of them. Others read him as a costume. Both responses are defensible, and anyone picking this up now should know the argument is out there. The parents come off thin next to their son, too, though Ed's confession scene is better than the rest of his characterization deserves.

Why you should read

Readers who want a first-person voice unlike any other
Fans of short novels that do a great deal in 240 pages
Book clubs and classrooms after a real argument
Anyone who likes a mystery told sideways

What to expect

Chapters numbered with prime numbers
Diagrams, maps, and math problems set into the text
A literal narrator who misses what you catch
A fast read at 240 pages

What holds up is the arithmetic of feeling. Christopher counts because counting is what he has instead of comfort, and Haddon never treats that as pitiable. The novel closes on a boy planning his A-levels and listing off what he will be able to do, and the flat certainty of that list is the most affecting thing in it. Two hundred and forty pages, one dead dog, and a fifteen-year-old telling the truth in the only register he owns.

Reviewed by Avery · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.1/ 5

Excellent

Listen to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time?: Yes. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Jeff Woodman.
Listen to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time audiobook?: The The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time audiobook runs 6 hr 2 min.
How much does The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $5.99, Paperback $6.94, Hardcover $15.49. Prices as of August 26, 2026 at 3:46 AM EDT and may change.

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Common questions

What is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time about?: Twenty-odd years on, the voice still works. Christopher John Francis Boone narrates his own detective story in flat declaratives, numbers his chapters with primes because he likes them better than the ordinary counting numbers, and stops mid-investigation to draw a diagram or walk you through the…
Is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time worth reading?: We scored The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time 4.1 out of 5. Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time hands the detective work to Christopher Boone, a fifteen-year-old who recites prime numbers, cannot bear being touched, and finds his neighbor's dog killed with a garden fork. A short, funny, disquieting novel that…