RaveThe San Francisco ChronicleHaddon brings together elements from the diverse genres of coming-of-age novel, autobiography and, above all, detective fiction in an unusual and engaging mix … Connecting autism with detection turns out to be a brilliant device on which to hang a novel. In a way, Christopher's literal, just-the-facts approach to life is simply the hyperlogical extension of the methods of crime fiction and whodunits … The imaginative leap of writing a novel – the genre that began as an exercise in sentiment – without overt emotion is a daring one, and Haddon pulls it off beautifully. Christopher's story is full of paradoxes: naive yet knowing, detached but poignant, often wryly funny despite his absolute humorlessness.
