Chapter by Chapter

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Chapter by chapter

Note: The chapters in this book are all in pair numbers

Chapters 2, 3 & 7: The story begins when the narrator, Christopher Boone, finds Wellington, Mrs. Shears’ dead dog in the front lawn. He realizes that the dog had been impaled with a large garden fork pinning him to the ground. The narrator decides to pick up the bloody dog and pet him. Mrs. Shears comes running out of her house cursing and accuses Christopher of Wellingtons death. In chapter 7, Christopher states that this is a mystery story. Siobhan is Christopher’s aid teacher and helps him threw all his problems and he explains to her that he wants to write a mystery story.


Chapters 11, 13 & 17: The officer arrived and grabbed Christopher’s arm (Christopher can’t stand being touched) and without thinking he hits the officer. The officer asks him if he meant to hit him, Christopher states yes because he doesn’t know how to explain himself clearly. The officer arrests him for assaulting a police officer.

Chapters19, 23 & 29: In chapter 19, Christopher decides to write his chapters of his story all in prime numbers. Christopher is put in a cell and the officer allows him to call his father. He wonders how he would escape if he was in a real mystery novel. Christopher describes how people are confusing because they use metaphors and Siobhan gives him examples of how people’s behaviours can have meanings.

Chapters 31, 37 & 41: Christopher can tell his father has arrived at the police station because he hears him yelling and cursing. Father holds up his hands, fingers spread a part because Christopher doesn’t like to be touched or hugged. They are both taken to a room to discuss the incident with the police officer and weather or not he killed Wellington. Christopher is given a caution. His father asks Christopher to stay out of trouble and to mind other people’s business. Christopher insists that he finds out who killed Welling but father gets extremely angry.

Chapters 43, 47 & 53: Christopher sees four red cars in a row, which means that he is going to have a good day. He explains that when he sees three red cars in a row that it’s going to be a quite good day, five red cars in a row is a super good day and four yellow cars in a row is a black day. Christopher’s mother dies two weeks later and his father never allowed him to go visit her in the hospital before her death. His father says that she died of a heart attack. Mrs. Shears comes over to cook for them and tells his father “we’re going to get threw this”.

Chapters 59, 61 & 67: Christopher goes behind his fathers back to try and find out who killed Wellington. That night, Christopher knocks on Mrs. Shears’ door and tells her that he is going to find out who killed her dog. Christopher asks her if she knows but she slams the door on his face. He then decides to do some detective work. He decides to investigate the lawn and looks threw the window of Mrs. Shears’ shed and sees a fork that looked like the one that was in Wellington. Mrs. Shears’ comes running out of the house threatening him that she was going to call the police. Christopher decides to do some more detective work even though he is afraid of strangers. He rings everyone’s doorbell on the block to find out more about Wellington’s death. On his way home, he concludes that the person that killed Wellington must have been someone that doesn’t like Mrs. Shears, such as Mr. Shears. He decides to find out more information about Mr. Shears.

Chapters 71, 73 & 79: Christopher gets called names such as “special needs” and “stupid” and he wants to prove them wrong by taking his A level math and getting an A grade. Father approaches Christopher and says that he received a phone call from Mrs. Shears and reminds Christopher to keep his nose out of other peoples business. Christopher tells him that Mr. Shears is his prime suspect but father only gets angrier. Father tells Christopher not to mention Mr. Shears’ or Mrs. Shears name in his house.

Chapters 83, 89 & 97: The next day Christopher tells Siobhan that his dad wouldn’t let him do anymore detecting and that he could no longer continue his book he was writing. Siobhan says that he should be proud of his book. He tells Siobhan that his father and Mr. and Mrs. Shears are no longer friends and she doesn’t know what to tell him. The next two days Christopher witnesses three yellow cars in a row, which meant that it was going to be a black day. The third day he decided to keep his eyes shut the whole way to school because he is allowed to do that after two black days in a row. Five days later he sees five red cars in a row, which meant that it was going to be a super good day. He run’s in to one of his neighbours, Mrs. Alexander and he thinks he could find out more stuff about Wellington or Mr. Shears without directly asking her so that his father wouldn’t be mad. He decides to risk getting in to trouble by doing detective work because today was a super good day. Mrs. Alexander tells him that Mr. Shears was sleeping with his mother and that is why father hates me. She makes him promise not to tell his father.

Chapters 101, 103 & 107: Mr. Jeavons, Christopher’s math teacher, explains why Christopher likes math so much. Siobhan tells Christopher that his story should be more descriptive. Christopher talks about how much he likes Sherlock Holmes and how he wants to be a detective like him.

Chapters 109, 113 & 127: Siobhan asks Christopher if he’s upset about what Mrs. Alexander told him. He says no because mother is dead and Mr. Shears is no longer around anymore. Christopher comes home from school and places his book in the kitchen. His father comes home, finds the book and asks Christopher about his conversation with Mrs. Alexander (which is stated in his story). His father, frustrated because he put his nose in to other peoples business, grabs Christopher’s shoulder and without thinking Christopher hits him. He blanks and after he hears father open the trash can and close it again.

Chapters 137, 139 & 149: Christopher’s father apologizes to him and brings him to the zoo. When he returns from school the next day he retrieves the key to the shed where he heard his dad throw away his book. He looks in the trash can and doesn’t find it. He decides to search everywhere in the house to find his book. He finds his book in a shit box under his dad’s bed, along with a bunch of letters from his mom. He takes one of the letters and is super confused because his mother is supposed to be dead.

Chapters 151, 157 & 163: Christopher wants to take more letters from his mom from under his dad’s bed but he doesn’t get the chance to for six days.

Chapters 167, 173 & 179: Christopher finally takes more letters from under his dad’s bed. He throws up all over himself when he reads them. His dad comes in and sees that Christopher had discovered the lies about his mother. His father feels extremely guilty and wants to regain Christopher’s trust and tells him that he is the one that killed Wellington. Christopher is terrified of his father, sneaks out of the house and hides behind his shed in the backyard. In the morning, his father is looking everywhere for him and once he leaves, he comes out of his hiding spot.

Chapters 181, 191 & 193: Christopher takes his dads wallet that he left on the kitchen counter and decides to go find his mother in England. He eventually leaves his house to go find the train station. Christopher is scared because there are too many people around and decides to sit down at a random cafe. A police officer asks if he’s OK and tells him where he can buy his train ticket.

Chapters 197, 199, 211: He finally gets on the train and sits very still. He hears someone calling his name and it was the same police officer that helped him get his ticket. The officer explains to him that his father is at the station and Christopher assumes that he had been arrested for killing Wellington. Then the police officer tells him to sit with him so that they can get off at the next stop. Christopher asks if he can go to the washroom and hides in a luggage shelf where the police can’t find him.

Chapters 223, 227 & 229: Christopher is able to get off the train in England without anyone seeing him. He gets directions and eventually finds his mothers house. His mother wasn’t home when he got there and he decides to hide in the garden. His mother is in huge shock when she sees Christopher and he tells her how his father told him that she was dead. Mr. Shears gets mad that Christopher is there and wants him to go back to his house with his father. Christopher doesn’t want to see his father anymore and is terrified of him.

Chapter 223: His mother tells Christopher he can stay for as long as he wants. Mr. Shears is extremely mad. His mother takes Mr. Shears’ car and drives her and Christopher back to his father’s house. His mother ends things with Mr. Shear and his father slowly starts regaining Christopher’s trust and by buying him a new puppy.