THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME (Mark Haddon) - June 7/10

This seriously entertaining book, which follows an autistic teen as he attempts to solve a dog's murder and eventually makes his way to London, features one of the most compelling protagonists I've encountered in quite some time, as Haddon effortlessly gets inside the head of an autistic person and paints a rather vivid portrait of how they view the world. And though the book occasionally gets bogged down in digressions, there are so many surprise twists (his mother isn't dead!) and well-conceived set pieces (the train station) that it becomes impossible not to just breeze through the novel in a few days. ***1/2 out of ****