Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Dirk Gently, #1)

by Douglas Adams

book data

6,810 ratings, 3.90 average rating, 284 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		29%
4		39%
3		25%
2		5%
1		0%

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published

June 1st 1991 (first published 1987) by Pocket

binding

Mass Market Paperback, 306 pages

isbn

0671746723 (isbn13: 9780671746728)

description

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 travel...more

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09/22/07

Ian Wood rated it:

bookshelves: douglas-adams

Read in January, 1987

recommends it for: anyone

Douglas Adams' underated masterpiece leads Dirk Gently from a search for a missing cat to unlocking the secrets of time travel and saving the human race from total extinction.

I thought no-one could write a better comic novel than 'The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' until I first read this. I've subsequently re-read this novel countless times and it never fails to entertain, I'm still finding references to literature and popular culture that I've previously missed.

Th...more

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02/01/07

Michael rated it:

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: British comedy fans

I recently re-read Dirk Gently, since the first time I read it was in the seventh or eighth grade, and so I really didn't remember much of it. I must say it is absolutely fantastic. It is one of the few books which as I read it I was imagining what you could do for a film version. I think it would be a fantastic work to bring to the big screen, particularly after the modest success of Hitchhiker's...

That said, I love Douglas Adams. The man was a genius at creating characters, and the...more

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11/05/08

Madeline rated it:

bookshelves: the-list

I still don't really understand how the ending of this book worked, and trying to describe the plot would be like trying to build a submarine out of cheese. Instead, I'll just share some quotes from this book that I especially loved, because Douglas Adams is the only author in the history of the world who is capable of creating them.

"'A horse?' he said again.
'Yes, it is,' said the Professor. 'Wait - ' he motioned to Richard, who was about to go out again and investigate -...more I still don't really understand how the ending of this book worked, and trying to describe the plot would be like trying to build a submarine out of cheese. Instead, I'll just share some quotes from this book that I especially loved, because Douglas Adams is the only author in the history of the world who is capable of creating them.

"'A horse?' he said again.
'Yes, it is,' said the Professor. 'Wait - ' he motioned to Richard, who was about to go out again and investigate - 'Let it be. It won't be long.'
Richard stared in disbelief. 'You say there's a horse in your bathroom, and all you can do is stand there naming Beatles songs?'"

"Richard stood transfixed for moment or two, wiped his forehead again, and gently replaced the phone as if it were an injured hamster. His brain began to buzz gently and suck its thumb. Lots of little synapses deep inside his cerebral cortex all joined hands and started dancing around and singing nursery rhymes."

"On the wall was a Duran Duran poster on which someone had scrawled in fat red felt tip, 'Take this down please.'
Beneath that another hand had scrawled, 'No.'
Beneath that again the first hand had written, 'I insist that you take it down.'
Beneath that the second hand had written, 'Won't!'
Beneath that - 'You're fired!'
Beneath that - 'Good!'
And there the matter appeared to have rested."

"'Welcome, by the way, to my offices.'
He waved a vague hand around the tatty surroundings. 'The light works,' he said, indicating the window, 'the gravity works,' he said, dropping a pencil on the floor. 'Anything else we have to take our chances with.'"

"'Don't you listen to anything you say? The whole thing was obvious!' he exclaimed, thumping the table. 'So obvious that the only thing which prevented me from seeing the solution was the trifling fact that it was completely impossible. Sherlock Holmes observed that once you have eliminated the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.'"(less)

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06/29/07

Jon rated it:

(review of isbn 0330301624)

Read in January, 1989

recommends it for: Douglas Adams fans

Adams' first fiction foray into a world other than the one(s) created for the Hitchhiker's Trilogy is a treat: a detective story filled with the same bizarre happenings and twists, described and narrated in Adams' inimitable comedic style. Unlike the Hitchhiker's books, however, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency was written to be a stand-alone story, with a definite beginning, middle, and end. In many ways, this was Adams' first attempt at writing a proper novel--and he succeeds wildly. I ...more

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04/16/09

Frankie rated it:

hilarious and in my view better than "hitchikers..." (but i might be in the minority there...)

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4 comments

12/11/08

Reinhold rated it:

(review of isbn 3453199081)

bookshelves: fantasy, own, science-fiction

Read in December, 2004

Auf den ersten Seiten sitzt man bei diesem Buch und fragt sich, worauf will dieser Kerl eigentlich hinaus. Man versteht nur Bahnhof und erst langsam lüften sich die Schleier. Wie verbindet man einen elektrischen Mönch, ein Pferd im Badezimmer, einen ermordeten Millionär der als Geist weiterlebt aber dessen Leiche verschwunden ist, ein Sofa das im Stiegenhaus steckt, einen versponnen Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Chronologie (der selbst nicht weiß womit sich sein Lehrstuhl eigentlich beschäfti...more

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05/19/09

Amy rated it:

bookshelves: fiction

Read in May, 2009

This is a strange book. I was hoping it would be, since it's written by the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Don't expect to be able to solve this mystery -- it doesn't stay within the bounds of normalcy long enough to be predictable!

I enjoyed the characters, and the story continues to grow on me, even though it moved a bit slowly for a detective novel (of sorts). Sometimes I found the enthusiastic passages about computers and technology to be a bit out of place, bu...more

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06/19/08

Roz Savage added it

I have listened to this book twice now – once as an audiobook (while I was rowing across the Atlantic ) and once as a dramatization (while rowing from California to Hawaii (see http://www.rozsavage.com) – and I still love it. Sort of a cross between Inspector Morse, Doctor Who, and of course the Hitch Hikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, it is very entertaining and just sufficiently thought-provoking. Recommended.

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06/07/07

Robb rated it:

One of the best books i've ever read. It far surpasses the Hitchhiker's series. It's more complicated, funnier, and just amazing. It's a mixing Rime of the Ancient Mariner with Sci-fi themes and time travel... It's an Adams book through and through, with his trademark colorful language and wit. I recommend it to anyone who is capable of reading.

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06/08/08

Mitch rated it:

recommends it for: Everyone.

While I have read more 'important' books that I feel like I should say are my most favorite book ever... I won't.
This book is my favorite book.
Its so funny, spooky, well written.
I have read this one maybe 10 times.

(Side note, I think that would be a useful way of rating books, how many times you read them.)

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

3 comments

06/09/09

Adam rated it:

bookshelves: fantasy-sci-fi, mystery

Read in June, 2009

"'Ah,' said Dirk, 'it is a rare mind indeed that can render the hitherto nonexistent blindingly obvious. The cry "I could have thought of that" is a very popular and misleading one, for the fact is that they didn't, and a very significant and revealing fact it is too.'"

Douglas Adams brings his characteristically odd sense of humor to the mystery genre, tying music, literature, and quantum mechanics into a story of murder and paranormal activity. That the various p...more

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2 comments

04/30/09

Jason rated it:

Read in April, 2009

This book was very slow until halfway through when the main character Dirk Gently arrives. Then the pace picks up, but overall plot points are scattered and non-sensicial. There are certain elements that are quite entertaining and yet others make no sense. All in all I would state that this book is a poor follow up to the Hitchiker's books. If you are in the mood for a bizarre scientific "mystery" book filled with characters and plot points that make little sense even when explaine...more

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03/08/09

Brian rated it:

bookshelves: sci-fi

Read in December, 1990

Douglas Adams may suffer to a similar condition as Joseph Heller- their first works were so strong, so perfect, so beloved, that all their subsequent efforts were met with disappointment. To follow The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (THGTTG) series with anything nearly as good is almost too much to ask of a writer- especially in something as hit-or-miss as comedy. Alas, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (DGHDA) has a few chuckles, and if I could manage to examine it completely independen...more

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03/26/09

Isil rated it:

(review of isbn 2070426823)

bookshelves: angleterre, fantastique, humour, science-fiction, xxe

Read in April, 2009

Ceux qui ont lu Le guide galactique savent que parler de ce type de roman est très difficile. Douglas Adams ose tout, jusqu’à l’absurde. Ca part dans tous les sens, tous les événements étant tous plus bizarres les uns que les autres. Avec Un cheval dans la salle de bain, première rencontre avec le détective holistique* Dirk Gently, on n’est pas dépaysé. Des éléments hallucinants se succèdent dans une sorte de frénésie. Un moine électrique qui croit à notre place, une sali�...more

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09/08/08

Christina Stind rated it:

(review of isbn 0330301624)

bookshelves: 1001-books, 1001-books-2008-edition, 2008, books-i-own, fiction

Read in November, 2008

Douglas Adams was a funny, funny man - and even though my personal favourites are the Hitch Hiker books, I still really like these books.
What's not to like - a book with electric monks, horses in bathrooms, sofas stuck in staircases, ghosts, Schrödinger's cat among other things? Now you might wonder how this all can be brought together - and I wondered too. But fear not - the answer is Dirk Gently who is a holistic detective: "The term 'holistic' refers to my conviction that what we ...more

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08/28/08

Lori rated it:

bookshelves: popular-fiction

Guess I need a shelf for sci-fi-fantasy, but I don't yet. This was headed for four stars, but I got too confused toward the end. I occasionally got lost in the Hitchhiker books, too, so I guess I'm not surprised.

Richard is dating the sister of one of the world's richest men, for whom he works in software design. Said rich man is on his way to his "cabin" (palatial estate), leaving an extended message on his sister's answering machine (this is how he thinks through idea...more

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06/27/08

Greg rated it:

(review of isbn 0671692674)

Read in July, 2007

Being as how every book in the Hitchhiker's Guide series are on my list of favorite books, it was only a matter of time before I seeked out this other Douglas Adams series.

You can read the book synopsis somewhere else -- I won't take up time in my review going over that. Except to say this: time travel. Yes, another @#$% book about time travel. I thought Adams was better than that. Even THHGTTG goes over time travel, and does it a lot better than Dirk Gently. Judging by the book's ti...more

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06/19/08

John rated it:

Read in March, 2009

Imagine a mystery where you weren't certain what the characters were supposed to figure out, who was involved, how anything could have happened, and where the only character who was even out to figure it out was someone nobody else believed? That is a tough sell for any writer other than Douglas Adams, who pioneered the post-modern comedy that relies more on cleverness in individual scenes that what strings them together. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is even less cohesive that the Hit...more Imagine a mystery where you weren't certain what the characters were supposed to figure out, who was involved, how anything could have happened, and where the only character who was even out to figure it out was someone nobody else believed? That is a tough sell for any writer other than Douglas Adams, who pioneered the post-modern comedy that relies more on cleverness in individual scenes that what strings them together. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is even less cohesive that the Hitchhikers series, jumping from a scene with a robot designed to believe as many things as possible and his frustrated horse, to a ghost trying to hitchhike his way home, to a boring a dinner at a college, to the holistic detective agency of a man who uses the highly fallible intricacies of the universe to find missing cats. That detective, his secretary, that ghost, and some unsuspecting bystanders will have to figure out what the mystery is and solve it before... well, I can't tell you or that would spoil. But you get it now, don't you? It's a holistic mystery.

Adams gleefully plays upon new age philosophy, new age skepticism, quantum physics, and the mathematical revelations that led many severe non-hippies to realize everything really may be connected in a very physical way that we've all known about all along but never realized. It's all so preposterous that no other writer, even Terry Pratchett, could really swing it. While making more pointed jabs at certain sensitive spots than his other novels, it retains the classic Adams absurd good-naturedness that the world could use a lot more of. Sadly, the world doesn't even have that many of his books.

I got a holistic bonus with my reading experience. As I’ve got to spend the week off my feet for my ankle to heal I scooped up a bunch of books out of a box of those I’ve meant to read. A Samuel Coleridge anthology was on top of the pile; I like to keep at least one classic in any batch of books I read. But I decided to start by cheering myself up with the unique stylings of Adams in this, the last of his books I’ve yet to read. His book makes numerous references to Coleridge, and even has a character pick up his own Coleridge anthology to read some of it. Reading about Adams’s character reading Coleridge when it was the next book I meant to read and was two feet away, I felt I got the entire Gently experience.(less)

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06/05/08

Jen3n rated it:

bookshelves: humor, sci-fi

There's a large building on an off-street just north of downtown here that has a large, Gothic-script sign made of wrought iron and little light bulbs. In actuality, the sign hanging in front of the old stone building marks the place as the local gathering spot of a very specific electricians union. However, the loopy script set into the metal of the sign unfailingly looks to me, when I glimpse it in passing through my peripheral vision, as though it reads The Electrical Monks.

This...more

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04/24/08

Chris rated it:

bookshelves: fantasy-humor

Read in January, 2005

It's sad that most reviews of this novel start by stating the reviewer's feelings about Adams's other work, Hitchhikers Guide, but it is what he's famous for. I liked that series, but would hesitate to call it genius, as so many others have. I think it's overrated.

Conversely, I feel that the two Dirk Gently books are vastly underrated, and actually do reveal Adams's genius. These books are intelligent, devilishly clever and funnier than the other series. Some critics here have said...more

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""The Electric Monk was a labour-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder... Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you what was becoming an increasingly onerous task, that of believing all the things the world expected you to believe." " More quotes...