Dirk Gently's holistic detective agency

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Douglas Adams: Dirk Gently's holistic detective agency (1988, Pan Books)

247 pages

English language

Published Aug. 7, 1988 by Pan Books.

ISBN:
978-0-330-30162-6
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4 stars (5 reviews)

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a humorous detective novel by English writer Douglas Adams, first published in 1987. It is described by the author on its cover as a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic".

The book was followed by a sequel, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. The only recurring major characters are the eponymous Dirk Gently, his secretary Janice Pearce and Sergeant Gilks. Adams also began work on another novel, The Salmon of Doubt, with the intention of publishing it as the third book in the series, but died before completing it.

23 editions

Review of "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Read this back when it first came out, but the sequel made a much larger impression on me. Our "detective" does lots of investigating but not much detecting, and doesn't show up until a good ways into the book. After that, the story really gets going, and everything mentioned is for a reason. Loved the ending.

Looking forward to rereading the second book, and then the third, which I hardly remember. Also planning to check out the BBC television show based on this book soon - it was highly rated. As for the book, 3½ stars.

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4 stars
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3 stars