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

by Douglas Adams
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Dirk Gently, #1)
book data
6,810 ratings, 3.90 average rating, 284 reviews (more data...)
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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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Ian Wood
09/22/07
Ian Wood rated it: 5 of 5 stars

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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Michael
02/01/07
Michael rated it: 5 of 5 stars

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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Madeline
11/05/08
Madeline rated it: 4 of 5 stars

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
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Jon
06/29/07
Jon rated it: 5 of 5 stars (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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Frankie
04/16/09
Frankie rated it: 5 of 5 stars

hilarious and in my view better than "hitchikers..." (but i might be in the minority there...)
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Reinhold
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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Amy
05/19/09
Amy rated it: 3 of 5 stars

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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Roz Savage
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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Robb
06/07/07
Robb rated it: 5 of 5 stars

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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Mitch
06/08/08
Mitch rated it: 5 of 5 stars

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.)
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Adam
06/09/09
Adam rated it: 3 of 5 stars

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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Jason
04/30/09
Jason rated it: 3 of 5 stars

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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Brian
03/08/09
Brian rated it: 3 of 5 stars

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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Isil
03/26/09
Isil rated it: 4 of 5 stars (review of isbn 2070426823)

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 saliÃ...more
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Christina Stind
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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Lori
08/28/08
Lori rated it: 3 of 5 stars

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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Greg
06/27/08
Greg rated it: 3 of 5 stars (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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John
06/19/08
John rated it: 5 of 5 stars

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
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Jen3n
06/05/08
Jen3n rated it: 3 of 5 stars

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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Chris
04/24/08
Chris rated it: 5 of 5 stars

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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Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Dirk Gently, #1)
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quotes from this book

""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...


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1001  Books You Must Read Before You Die
Douglas Adams (incorporating The Hitchhiker's Guide)
The Sometimes Readers
1001 books you must read before you die
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