The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

Somehow I have never previously read this.  (I lent my copy out before reading it, and only got it back a decade later.)

No spoilers in what follows.  There is lots of maths, explained clearly through the voice of the lead character, 15 year-old Christopher.  The chapter-numbers are prime numbers.  There’s a good explanation (after a complicated one) of the Monty Hall Problem (*).  There can’t be many best-selling young-adult novels that have a mathematical proof question as an appendix. And I spent most time thinking about (and playing in Excel) with a formula for population change which, depending on the value of lambda, becomes chaotic. 

There’s also a story, and it’s a good one too.

So: an easy, quick read, with some interesting maths to think about.

(*) Incidentally, this was referenced in Alex Bellos’ Guardian column yesterday.  He introduces a new variant on the problem.  I spent the whole day thinking about it – and finally got there.  Do have a go: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/aug/24/can-you-solve-it-win-the-car-dodge-the-goat

It is possible to get a probability of over 50% !