Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency: Amazon.ca: Douglas Adams: Books

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This time there would be no witnesses. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

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4.4 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Another great book by Douglas Adams, Oct 4 2009

By	Mr. Arkats - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Paperback)

Terrific writing, as only Douglas Adams can produce. This book seems to make quite a bit more sense than its sequel (The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul) at first reading, and I would consider it to be slightly more "polished" in style. A fairly quick read, but also enriched with trademark DA wit, and social/theological commentary.

Well worth reading, if only for the bit about the horse.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Witty titles were never my strong point, Jul 15 2004

By	Oymaprat (Nowhere In Particular) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Mass Market Paperback)

First of all I would like to say that I'm not the sort of person who needs everything to make sense to enjoy something (I'm a Doctor Who fan for Christs sake!) so that is something that helps me love this book.
Mr Adams was (and boy do I hate saying was) a master craftsman. He could be intelligent, witty and plain wierd at the same time and still have room for a bit of sentimentality.
I'm pretty confident that if you're reading this then you have enjoyed another of Mr Adams works. In which case I'm sure that you will delight in reading this as it is in the same style as many of his other books. It is fair to compare it to the Hitchhiker series as it is done in much the same vain. In my opinion it is as good as the aforementioned. Yes so the ending doesn't totally fit everyones perspective of great, but it suits me. It's full of lots of ideas that didn't neccessarily works out, but for me that is just as great; trying to work out what Mr Adams had as alternate plots. Even though the title charactor doesn't turn up till a good half way in, his soon to be friend, Richard Macduff does a good enough job of entertaining us. One to one, I strongly reccomend this to any other Adams fan, and for that matter any other fan of literature. It is truely great, as is its sequal.

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5.0 out of 5 stars P.G. Wodehouse meets Dr. Who: a complete pleasure, Jul 8 2004

By	Trevor Kettlewell "http://people.aapt.net.au/... (Nowra, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Mass Market Paperback)

If you got P.G. Wodehouse to write a Dr. Who script you might come up with something like this. Why not? Apparently as well as script editing for series 17 (featuring, for example, 'City of Death' where John Cleese is an art dealer), Adams wrote a couple of episodes ('The Pirate Planet', and the unfinished 'Shada' which featured none other than Prof. 'Reg' Chronitis and his TARDIS style study). Sorry, enough trainspotting (thanks G & J).

The Dr. Who thing only hit me late in the book, but that's partly because 'Dirk Gently' only pops up about half way through, and he's most enjoyably reminiscent of Tom Baker in his distracted purposefulness. I suppose there's something of Ford Prefect there too, and other elements of Hitch Hikers - yet another confused alien species looking to earth as an Eden and changing the deep past and whole evolution of humanity. And I suppose Richard could be played by whoever was DentArthurDent in the TV show.

But, hey, this isn't having a go at the book, which is sheer pleasure to read. It's not at all a cheap carbon of earlier Adams, there's just some lovely echoes. The guy just writes so wonderfully - like Wodehouse - and the dialogue is full of good (frightfully British) humour and character. Moreover the comic observations on the everyday are clever and flawlessly executed. The setting is surprisingly coherent when you get down to it (I *love* the way he casually resolves the sofa paradox that's been running through the whole book) - there's really nothing I can think of to complain about with it. I'm used to books lifting me up and then disappointing, but this manages to ebulliently float you along from start to finish.

I'm so glad I decided to start rereading books. It must be over a decade since I'd read this and I only had the vaguest recollection of some of the key images. But the chief pleasure of Adams can't be reduced to, say, the plot line, which, while fine, is in one way incidental (i.e. the characters and dialogue are good enough to stand alone). I get the impression he was in a fairly positive state of mind when he wrote this (as opposed to Mostly Harmless), and in excellent form, so these character's are simply pleasant to be with - as well as being hilarious and - as with those of Pratchett on a good day - charming.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun
It's not the best of Douglas Adams. But it's still good.

Published on April 25 2006

3.0 out of 5 stars Gets points for trying to be different, but is average
"Dirk Gently's Holistic Dectective Agency" is an OK book. It is a different kind of mystery, as Douglas Adams intended. Read more

Published on May 15 2004 by Peter LaPrade

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Mediocrity
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Douglas Adam's writing, is that there will not be any more. Read more

Published on April 30 2004 by Jake006

3.0 out of 5 stars The *Other* Douglas Adams Saga
The oddball detective Dirk Gently and his "client" Richard MacDuff go on an investigation to solve a murder, AND save the human race from extinction as well.... Read more

Published on April 5 2004 by Alan Caylow

5.0 out of 5 stars A book on the fundamental interconnectedness of all things
Having finished with the Hitchhiker's series with So Long And Thanks For The Fish, Douglas Adams created a diptych utilizing the character of Dirk Gently, an eccentric character... Read more

Published on Mar 29 2004 by Daniel J. Hamlow

3.0 out of 5 stars A ghost-horror-detective-time-travel-romantic-comedy-epic
This is a very strange book. Adams himself has described it as a "ghost-horror-detective-time-travel-romantic-comedy-epic, mainly concerned with mud, music and quantum mechanics. Read more

Published on Nov 25 2003 by Robert Holm

5.0 out of 5 stars easily Douglas Adams's best
The people who say this is boring or difficult to understand are reviewing themselves, not this book.

I've read this six times and loved it each time. Read more

Published on Oct 26 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant book, and how could you expect anything different?
Out of the mind of one of the world's greatest spinners of stories comes this utterly fantastic tale of parody. Read more

Published on Aug 31 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the very cleverest books I've ever read
this one is just wonderful- I reread it every once in a while because it makes the world better. The first time I read it, I got to the end and immediately started reading it... Read more

Published on Jul 1 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a miracle of rare device
Douglas Adams has left us some rare gems, and one of these is this novel. Connect Coleridge's Kubla Khan whit fractal theory, software industry, Schrodinger cats and... Read more

Published on Oct 12 2002 by Ventura Angelo

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