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Douglas Adams

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Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency Box Set: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul Kindle Edition

by Douglas Adams (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 6,727 ratings

Book 1 of 3: Dirk Gently

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Discover the hilarious and beloved Dirk Gently novels from legendary science fiction author Douglas Adams—now the basis for the all-new TV series on BBC America!

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

Douglas Adams, the “master of wacky words and even wackier tales” (Entertainment Weekly), once again boggles the mind with a completely unbelievable story of ghosts, time travel, eccentric computer geniuses, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the end of the world, and—of course—missing cats.

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

When a check-in desk at London’s Heathrow Airport disappears in a ball of orange flame, the event is said to be an act of God. But which god, wonders holistic detective Dirk Gently. And how is this connected to Dirk’s battle with his cleaning lady over his filthy refrigerator…or to the murder of his latest client? Or are these events just another stretch of coincidences in the life of the world’s most off-kilter private investigator?

Book 1 of 3

Dirk Gently
Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Pocket Star
Publication date

October 4, 2016
File size

4496 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Now, New Millennium Audio presents all the works of Douglas Adams on audiobook. The science-fiction trilogy, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and its four companions, all available, as well as The Salmon of Doubt.

About the Author

Douglas Adams, a legend of imaginative fiction, ushered in the advent of comedic science fiction with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The book developed into a hugely successful series of five novels. The Dirk Gently series—Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul—helped cement Adams as one of the most successful and beloved authors in science fiction.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Svlad Cjelli. Popularly known as Dirk, though, again, "popular" was hardly right. Notorious, certainly; sought after, endlessly speculated about, those too were true. But popular? Only in the sense that a serious accident on the motorway might be popular-- everyone slows down to have a good look, but no one will get too close to the flames. Infamous was more like it. Svlad Cjelli, infamously known as Dirk. He was rounder than the average undergraduate and wore more hats. That is to say, there was just the one hat which he habitually wore, but he wore it with a passion that was rare in one so young. The hat was dark red and round, with a very flat brim, and it appeared to move as if balanced on gimbals, which ensured its perfect horizontality at all times, however its owner moved his head. As a hat it was a remarkable rather than entirely successful piece of personal decoration. It would make an elegant adornment, stylish, shapely and flattering, if the wearer were a small bedside lamp, but not otherwise. People gravitated around him, drawn in by the stories he denied about himself, but what the source of these stories might be, if not his own denials, was never entirely clear.

From AudioFile

Like the author's classic THE HITCHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, this zany novel imaginatively combines science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and trendy philosophy into a risible and thought-provoking brew. Unlike HITCHHIKER'S, which Adams first cast as a serialized audio play and then novelized, GENTLY first appeared as a novel, which noted British writer/producer Dirk Maggs has dramatized for audio. It concerns the first important case of "holistic" gumshoe Dirk Gently, who encounters time-travel, space aliens, ghosts, an electric monk, and poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, among other weirdnesses, as he and his cohorts save humanity from oblivion. Maggs has deftly restructured the book for dramatic purposes and paced it to keep the listener ever alert to the abrupt, lightening-fast transitions. Sound, music, and voices are expertly textured. Y.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01KU08U2E
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pocket Star (October 4, 2016)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 4, 2016
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4496 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 304 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #755,683 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #900 in Movie Tie-In Fiction
- #4,057 in TV, Movie & Game Tie-In Fiction
- #5,501 in Private Investigator Mysteries (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 6,727 ratings

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Douglas Adams

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Douglas Adams (1952-2001) was the much-loved author of the Hitchhiker's Guides, all of which have sold more than 15 million copies worldwide.

Photo by michael hughes from berlin, germany (douglas adams Uploaded by Diaa_abdelmoneim) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Christin Keck

A great start--but unfortunately not finished

Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2020

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The first book in what promised to be a fantastic series, stands on its own as a fine example of what a good writer Douglas Adams was. It's plotting and characters are memorable, and there are moments that are laugh-out-loud funny. The problem is not with this first book. It's a more mature piece of writing than Hitchhiker was, and more cohesively done--but it really didn't have as good a follow-up.

If you want to see anything that even resembles the two television series that are available, you won't find it in this book. Whoever produced those apparently only read the jacket blurbs and not the actual novels. Which is too bad. Because the books ARE better than both British-made and American-made films. The books will startle you by how utterly divorced they are from both.

They did Adams a real disservice by doing that, but don't miss this novel because it isn't like the movie. This one is very, very good.

15 people found this helpful

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Mike D

Brilliant..nothing much else to say really!

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2013

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I love all of Douglas Adam's books so it will come as no surprise I enjoyed this one too. As with all his other novels, the central character in this one is a bit of a wacky, eccentric sort who has a few gifts and has decided to play detective in order to capitalize on the gullability of his clients.

I just loved reading this book and the other "Dark Tea- time Of the Soul". They are just great, easy to read, funny, enjoyable and light fun reads that make me wish so much that Douglas Adam's had remained alive longer so we could have had even more pleasure enjoying his unique way of constructing a good yarn.

I wont go into the plot here, many paople know this book backwards as do I. I have read it a multitude of times over the years and intend to carry on doing so every couple of years.

Just enjoy it, it is an utterly unique style of book, juts like all the others in the Hitch-Hikers series. Thanks for reading my review!!

One person found this helpful

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Zachary W. Dyer

Brilliant cast, great story

Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2011

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Douglas Adams' brilliant detective novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective agency is brought to life in the same spirit as his Hitch Hiker's Guide series.
However where with HHG we have a radio series transformed into a novel, in Dirk Gently we have the opposite. It's an entertaining romp using borrowed plot points from the unfinished Doctor Who story "Shada". Combining Time Travel, murder, possesion, and the interconnectedness of all things the novel and audio play create an enjoyable story to read and/or listen too.
I found this production actually easier to sit through then the book itself. Having been streamlined and reaaranged a bit to better fit the format of an audio drama. The cast is brilliant, special praise for Billy Boyd. A choice for Richard Mcduff I wouldn't have expected. I guess in my head he sounded different when I first read the book, but Billy Boyd takes the character well beyond anything I imagined.
Great overall if you can find a copy.

2 people found this helpful

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Bernie Gourley

The lesser known work of Douglas Adams

Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2016

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Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency [DGHDA] is the opening book in Douglas Adams’ second series of novels (what would have been a trilogy—at least--had Adams not passed away.) DGHDA was followed by The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, and that would have been followed by The Salmon of Doubt—though the manuscript was released in its incomplete form along with other random works in a collection by the same name—as publishers are want to make their cash cows rage after the dying of the light.

Adams is most famous for the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy [H2G2] series. DGHDA shares the British absurdist humor of H2G2, but is a more genre-bending a work. While H2G2 crosses humor and sci-fi, DGHDA takes those two genres and throws detective and supernatural fiction into the works. The book was billed by the author as a “detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic.” Of these, “horror” is dubious given the fundamental silliness, “epic” is a little grandiose for a work of 300 pages, and the “romantic” and “musical” parts are rather thin.

The title refers to a detective agency owned by Dirk Gently, who believes in the fundamental interconnectedness of all things and is a bit of a con man. Gently is the lead character in a comedic sense, but his straight man--Richard MacDuff--has at least equal claim to being the book’s overall lead. (Just as straight man Arthur Dent leads in the H2G2 books.) Gently gets involve when he discovers Richard engaged in the inexplicable activity of breaking into the window of his (Richard’s) girlfriend’s apartment—a girlfriend with which he has a favorable relationship. This convinces Gently that Richard has either been hypnotized or possessed, either of which makes him a prime customer of Gently’s agency.

The mystery part of the novel revolves around the new owner and editor of a magazine—Gordon Way--who dies, and whose ghost continues to be active in story (even having PoV chapters in this shifting PoV novel.) Richard comes to believe he’s a suspect, although the bungling former editor of the magazine—Michael Wenton-Weakes--is the lead suspect. Of course, the fact that the deceased is the father of Richard’s girlfriend, Susan Way, does encourage the notion that Richard could be involved. Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a who-dun-it if it was a straightforward case of one of these men with motives having done it.

As would be expected of a book by Douglas Adams, it has its moments of hilarity, but it wasn’t as funny as the best of the H2G2 books. The best absurdist device introduced into the book is the Electronic Monk. In an era in which no one has time for believing in things, one can purchase or rent a robot to believe things for one—particularly those outlandish notions that are unsupported by evidence and thus are least worthy of the effort of belief.

The main characters are all sufficiently quirky to be memorable, likable, or both. The characters are one of the strengths of this book. The story is a bit disheveled, probably purposefully so, but it doesn’t make for the easiest work to follow--particularly early in the story when one hasn’t yet got a firm grasp of who’s who and who’s doing what. That said, it’s a decent enough plot, all things considered.

I’d recommend this for those who like humorous speculative fiction.

49 people found this helpful

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gordtex

A Ripping Good Read

Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2014

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If you liked The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy you will most likely enjoy this book as well. If you like Terry Pratchett offerings, you will probably feel right at home. If you like droll, mostly understated British humour you will find this a very delightful read indeed. I have been a long time fan of Doug Adams, but somehow overlooked this particular novel until I saw the BBC mini-series of it. What a treat. Thank you, BBC. Mr. Adams certainly knew his way around fantastic and/or absurd situations. Perhaps not as fantastic as Hitchhiker's Guide. At least not until toward the end. Still, it's science fictiony enough for the imaginative.

I doubt if I am alone in appreciating his facility with the English language. How many authors do you know who could use the phrase "exuberantly prolific loquacity" in a sentence and make it read utterly normally. Personally, I doubt if I have ever even used two out three of those words and certainly not in the same sentence.

My advice: don't skim. Take your time to allow all the gags to sweep over you. They are on every page.

5 people found this helpful

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