Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Douglas Adams

Book 1 in the series:Dirk Gently

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quirky private detective

1980s cambridge setting

'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' by Douglas Adams is a quirky and creative novel that follows the eccentric private detective Dirk Gently as he investigates peculiar cases involving time travel, ghosts, and interconnected plots. The book is filled with witty humor, unexpected twists, and a mix of bizarre characters like the electric monk, a disgruntled former magazine publisher, and a time-traveling university professor. The plot unfolds in a non-linear fashion, gradually weaving together seemingly disparate storylines into a cohesive and satisfying narrative.

Characters:

The characters are eccentric and quirky, with Dirk Gently being the most notable for his unconventional approach to solving mysteries.

Writing/Prose:

The writing is characterized by quirky British humor and clever wordplay, blending absurdity with deeper philosophical themes.

Plot/Storyline:

The intricate plot combines a murder mystery with surreal elements like ghosts and time travel, revealing interconnectedness among seemingly unrelated events.

Setting:

Set in 1980s Cambridge, the story blends real and fantastical elements, with a focus on satirizing society and academia.

Pacing:

The pacing fluctuates, starting slowly and gaining momentum but concluding abruptly, tying up numerous plot points.

This time there was just the dead earth, a rumble of thunder, and the onset of that interminable light drizzle from the north-east by which so many of the world’s most momentous events seem to be acco...

Notes:

Dirk Gently is often compared to Douglas Adams's more famous work, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The book is described as a cross-genre novel involving elements of detective fiction, science fiction, and comedy.

The plot includes bizarre elements like time travel, ghosts, and an Electric Monk designed to believe things for people.

Dirk Gently's character appears very late in the book, causing some readers to feel annoyed at the slow start.

The novel incorporates themes of the interconnectedness of all things, echoed in its title.

Douglas Adams wrote this book on his Apple Macintosh, illustrating an early instance of desktop publishing.

Adams has confessed that even he found the book's ending confusing upon re-reading it.

From The Publisher:

From Douglas Adams, the legendary author of one of the most beloved science fiction novels of all time, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, comes a wildly inventive novel of ghosts, time travel, and one detective's mission to save humanity from extinction.

DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY

We solve the whole crime

We find the whole person

Phone today for the whole solution to your problem

(Missing cats and messy divorces a specialty)

Douglas Adams, the "master of wacky words and even wackier tales" (Entertainment Weekly) once again boggles the mind with a completely unbelievable story of ghosts, time travel, eccentric computer geniuses, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the end of the world, and-of course-missing cats.

Ratings (74)

Incredible (13)
Loved It (33)
Liked It (18)
It Was OK (7)
Did Not Like (2)
Hated It (1)

Reader Stats (162):

Read It (77)
Currently Reading (2)
Want To Read (56)
Did Not Finish (5)
Not Interested (22)

3 comment(s)

Cargide

Loved It

2 months

Será por lo corto, pero el personaje de Dirk no se me ha hecho tan parecido al de la serie, siendo mucho menos inocente. Por lo demás, los niveles de absurdo están de la mano en las dos.

gzynel160

Incredible

4 months

Reminded me of why I love Adams' writing. He doesn't write humor books, he writes fun, engaging stories that are very funny and very hard to put down.

jortup295

Loved It

7 months

Darker and somehow more hopeful than the Hitchhiker’s Guide series. Adams is the master of stories involving a regular Joe getting tangled up in the chaotic misadventures of some wacky interloper.

What can you read after
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency?

See the list (100 books)

About the Author:

Douglas Adams, a legend of imaginative fiction, ushered in the advent of comedic science fiction with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The book developed into a hugely successful series of five novels. The Dirk Gently series-Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul-helped cement Adams as one of the most successful and beloved authors in science fiction.

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