Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

By Douglas Adams

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is a much-loved cult classic, that has spawned radio dramas, television, theatre and comic book adaptations across the globe.

What do a dead cat, a computer whiz-kid, an Electric Monk who believes the world is pink, quantum mechanics, a Chronologist over two hundred years old, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet), and pizza have in common?

Apparently not much; until Dirk Gently, self-styled private investigator, sets out to prove the fundamental interconnectedness of all things by solving a mysterious murder, assisting a mysterious professor, unravelling a mysterious mystery, and eating a lot of pizza – not to mention saving the entire human race from extinction along the way (at no extra charge).

To find out more, read this book (better still, buy it then read it) – or contact Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

'A thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic' - Douglas Adams.

Continue this surreal series with The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul and the unfinished The Salmon of Doubt.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Aug 21, 2009
• ISBN: 9780330514187

Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams created all the various and contradictory manifestations of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: radio, novels, TV, computer game, stage adaptations, comic book and bath towel. He lectured and broadcast around the world and was a patron of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and Save the Rhino International. Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge, UK and lived with his wife and daughter in Islington, London, before moving to Santa Barbara, California, where he died suddenly in 2001.

Reviews for Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

[anbigin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Electric Monks, hypnotism, ghosts, salt shaker magic tricks, old college professors, a music magazine and then a dodo bird - what do they all have in common? I don't know - that's why I read this book. It wasn't as comedic as "Hitchhiker's" but obviously still fun. Highly enjoyable, good characters and amazingly random:)

[kawgirl · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I read this book, but had to force myself to do so. I just couldn't get into it.

[nadishka-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I love Douglas Adams descriptions. But the story line was a little too crazy for me. I'm sure everything ties up eventually, but I read only half the book and then skipped to the end.

[andibook-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Dirk Gently books loosely follow the private (“holistic”) detective Dirk Gently, but honestly he’s just one of a group of characters. That’s the great thing about Douglas Adams: you don’t get a story resolving around one heroic main character; everyone is the protagonist in their own personal story. I can’t even explain what the plot of these books. They’re complicated and full of coincidence, and eventually resolve themselves into a story, if not necessarily a plot.

[loafhunter13 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There is a long tradition of Great Detectives, and Dirk Gently does not belong to it. But his search for a missing cat uncovers a ghost, a time traveler, AND the devastating secret of humankind! Detective Gently's bill for saving the human race from extinction: NO CHARGE. A slight change for Adams though familiar themes are covered. An electric monk designed simply to believe, a 4 billion year old alien ghost, a murdered dotcom millionaire, a computer software genius and a time-traveling Cambridge professor come together with the title character to determine the fate of mankind as dictated by the poetry of Englishman Coleridge. Perhaps a stab at pulp noir with his normal cosmic twists, the book was entertaining but did not tread as happily carelessly as the Hitchhiker series. One can detect portions of the book where Adams attempted to write in a different style. These sections are book thankfully ended by lapses into the flippant, aside-filled jaunts that made him enjoyable. While it has it moments and the characters are entertaining, the plot and subplots amble along, sometimes without purpose or satisfying resolution. It seems as if Adams attempting to write a book with a similar scale and connectivity as he previous works and cram in all into a 200 page detective story. While it is not as concrete as the Hitchhiker series, it is full of the Adams' charm and sets up the much stronger sequel nicely.

[amzzz_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Time travel, ghosts, science fiction all in an attempt to be somewhat humorous... This just isn't my kind of book.

[echomikeromeo_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this book quite a lot. I think I'd have to say its better than the Hitchhiker's books. The plot is more developed and 'inter-connected' and I am pleased by the role that Bach plays.My favourite scene is when Richard suddenly jumps in the Thames.

[chazzifrazz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I am aware of some of Douglas Adams' books but have never read any till now. This caught my eye as it is a detective story. I wasn't expecting such an oddball cast of characters and a plot that came from outer space...but I did enjoy it!

Dirk Gently is a self styled detective, whose business sign in the window states:
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
We solve the 'whole' crime
We find the 'whole' person
Dirk's explanation of his methods: "The term 'holistic' refers to my conviction that what we are concerned with here is the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. I do not concern myself with such petty things as fingerprint powder, telltale pieces of pocket fluff and inane footprints. I see the solution to each problem as being detectable in the pattern and web of the whole. The connections between the causes and effects are often much more subtle and complex than we with out rough and ready understanding of the physical world might naturally suppose."

After reading that I hesitated to read on, but the mix of characters; the Electric Monk, Richard McDuff, Gordon Way, Reg and the rest were each interesting on their own. How they all wove together into the plot and the ending solution arrived at intrigued me. So I read on. And was glad I did.

A definitely bit of a wild ride and not anything like any detective story you expect. But a run ride, none the less.

[tysonadams · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book when I was young. Now that I'm much older I not only loved this book, but actually thought it was better than when I originally read it. Douglas Adams launches all sorts of scathing attacks on the silly stuff in society as ably as he creates a weird and wacky story.

A true legend of literature and this novel was a great example of his status as such.

[ltjinja · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Disappointing

[simoncbarber · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My favourite novel. Period.

[conina-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

OK. Hands up all those people who bought this purely because it had "By the author of THE HITCH HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY". Come on... be honest now.This isn't to say Dirk Gently is a bad book (it isn't). It's just that it's not Hitch Hikers.What I particularly like about this book is how Adams weaves several seemingly unconnected plot line (an Electric Monk who stopped believing, the ghost of an IT businessman and a couch stuck on a flight of stairs) to a single connecting point.Fans of Dr Who will spot that the main thread of the plot is based on Adams' one and only script for the series (City of Death).Yes. It is not Hitch Hiker's. But it is a great story full of Adams' usual quips and running gags

[sonyagreen · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It's not that this book is bad - it's just that there are better ones in the series.

[ricday_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A fun read!

[symcbean · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While Adam's is best known for the Aurthur Dent/Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy books, I think the Dirk Gently books are funnier, and have a more cohesive storyline.

[simonea_533972 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this book because I absolutely loved Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy and I am glad I did. It had the same sense of humor, though in its writing style it reminded me more of Terry Pratchett's Discworld. Since I also love Discworld, this is a great combination and I highly recommend reading this book if you like either Hitchhiker's guide or Discworld!

[tenamouse67 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Everybody loves a time traveling detective!

[greatrakes · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I think this is the worst novel that I really enjoy. It's shambling and windy, but it has threads of gold in it. Although he contrives to pull many bizarre incidents together, Adams provides no real suspense, most what happens is either telegraphed in advance, or just makes you think, "Oh, OK'". It suffers through a lack of a strong main character and has many half-developed ones - Gordon Way, time-traveling 'Reg' Chronotis, an Electric Monk and Dirk Gently himself - none of whom are actually the lead character. I was interested to see a number of themes that have appeared elsewhere, the Electric Monk and the ghost of Gordon Way were curiously Terry Pratchett-like, Gordon's kinetic ability is magnified by his anger rather like Patrick Swayze in Ghost, the early scene in the Great Hall, with all the crusty old Dons and one small girl, reminded me strongly of His Dark Materials. Adams also references (clumsily, I think) P G Wodehouse and Conan-DoyleI thought The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy worked best on the Radio, its initial success as a book was that those of us who had listened to it a dozen times knew and loved all the characters and all the jokes, we weren't really reading a book, we were replaying a script. And above all, the discipline of 30 minute radio slots made it a much tighter book than his later ones. I have the second Gently book on my reread list, I can't remember it at all.

[nodosaurus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a typical murder mystery. The owner of a corporation dies and the one due to inherit looks guilty. Did I say typical, it was written by Douglas Adams, so it isn't. This story involves a software program that converts business data into music, a detective who is in denial of his psychic abilities, a dead guy, a horse, an electric monk, and - as is typical for Douglas Adams, a perfectly ordinary sofa. Now add a 4 billion year-old spaceship and the British phone system, and I think you have it.

[vivl_6 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good bits. Very good bits, as one would expect of Mr Adams. But messy and, for me, ultimately unsatisfying. I feel bad about myself for saying that, but I'm nothing if not ludicrously honest.

[edwinkort · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Weer een boek in de categorie 'aardig'. Wat mij betreft geen topper.

[keristars_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This has always been my favorite of Douglas Adams's books.I'm not entirely sure what makes it so much better than the popular Hitchhiker series, at least for me, but for imagery and jokes that really stick in my subconscious and remain with me as more than pop culture touchstones, it's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. I suspect that the appeal might be in the slightly different type of humor and plot that Adams uses here. It seems to be more self-contained and less rambling and self-contradictory than the Hitchhiker books, perhaps? (Even though time travel is involved and you still get strange alien worlds and puns and so on.)Dirk Gently himself is a favorite character of mine, though I like him best when he's entirely in the third person as in this book, unlike in the follow-up where we get into his head a bit.Time travel is another favorite of mine, and in Dirk Gently, it is the main plot (even if you don't realize it until halfway through the book).The whole thing is a delight, and fun, and definitely my favorite of Adams's novels.

[vladmihaisima · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Funny book, making lots of random connections and changes of perspectives for events that start normal but finish unexpected. Enjoyable to read, gets a bit too confusing and unclear towards the end. The characters are strange combinations of a stereotype with something peculiar (ex: of time travelling university professor , visionary detective, electric monk etc.). Feels a bit more unitary than the author's famous work (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

[smackfu · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book on a micro level, but I had to look at the newsgroups to actually understand everything that was going on. Rewards re-reading.

[teresa.elms · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Satirical time travel story based on the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who figures in the plot at one point. Literate and funny.

[sebastianhagelstein · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book, like his others, is crazy and funny. Dirk Gently is probably the strangest of all the characters. He hypnotizes Richard MacDuff into stripping and jumping into a river when he mentions his doting aunt in WInnipeg. He hangs upside down from the ceiling and denies being a bat. He scams old ladies into paying for trips to Bermuda.The ending was satisying, as a certain ghost comes to rest and good things happen.

[emscape · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I decided to re-read this after having watched the BBC show of the same name, and while my memory of the book was spotty, I was struck fully in the face by how very different book-Dirk is from TV-Dirk. Book Dirk is much, much more mercenary and less trustworthy. He's also bigger, older and probably not as good looking. Anyway, in the book, Dirk Gently, does run a holistic detective agency, but he has an office and mostly its a scam of little old ladies who've lost pets. Anyway, Dirk's path holistlically crosses that of an old schoolmate, a professor of Chronology, an electric monk and a ghost. Dirk has to puzzle out what all these things have in common and save life as we know it.This is a hard book to quantify. I was sucked in. I enjoyed it. I wasn't a big fan of this version of Dirk as he's a scammer and very messy. I love Adams' writing, though and his quirky turns of phrase.

[datrappert · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This books starts slowly, weaving several plot threads together in what the reader hopes will become an entertaining story, but it never really gels. It is difficult to care very much about the characters. The story's main protagonist, a computer software writer, is never fully fleshed out, and the title character, Dirk Gently, remains a bit of an enigma. Adams seems more interested in putting forth his ideas about music, belief, time travel, and a few other subjects. These are often interesting, but don't make up for the lack of an urgent plot or for the books truly sloppy ending. Most importantly, the books just isn't that funny. True, it has an amusing tone, and Mr. Adams would have undoubtedly been a great guy to lift a few pints with, but there are no belly laughs, and some of what humor there is seems forced. Truly disappointing, although it does contain an interesting twist at the end that is easy to miss if you're not paying attention. In its favor, the book will encourage people to read Coleridge!

[booklove2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was my favorite book last year. This one didn't seem to hit the same notes with me. Instant love I had for the Guide. I didn't feel as connected with the Agency however. The book seems scattered and it doesn't seem like events in the plot are connected and explained very well, ESPECIALLY as Dirk Gently's entire deal is the connectedness of all things. Even Douglas Adams years later mentions not really understanding how the ending works out. Many of the characters were a little boring, even Dirk Gently, though he had a few good lines. It seemed like there were many unnecessary bits. Not as much humor either! I see this influencing so many things: the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde especially. I'm not sure how the show will work out. I guess it would be tough to compare anything to the perfection that is the Hitchhiker's Guide. It's such a shame it's disappointing, as I know there isn't enough writing from the genius Douglas Adams.

[atreic · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's clever. It's plotty. It's Douglas Adams. It just might be a bit _too_ clever and plotty and Douglas Adams even for me. There's a nice Douglas Adam's quote where he admits that the ending is Really Quite Confusing: "Ahem. All I can say is that it was as clear as day to me when I wrote it and now I can't figure it out myself. Sorry about that. I'm actually thinking about it at the moment as I've been re-reading the book in preparation for doing a screenplay. I've got a little bit of sorting out to do..."But it is full of warm fuzzies of there being music and maths at the depth of the universe, and all the little throw away resolutions, like how the sofa got stuck halfway up the stairs, are wonderful.