Review of "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
3.5, if I could!
Hardcover, 247 pages
English language
Published Aug. 7, 1987 by Simon and Schuster.
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a ghost-horror-detective-time travel-romantic comedy epic.
Dirk Gently is a private detective who isomer interested in telekinesis, quantum mechanics and lunch than fiddling around with fingerprint powder, so his investigations tend to produce startling and unexpected results. A simple search for a missing cat uncovers a bewildered ghost, a secret time-traveler, and the devastating secret that lies behind the whole human history and threatens to bring it to a premature end.
Sadly the cat dies. --front flap
3.5, if I could!
3.5, if I could!
I first read this many years ago and, while I remember quite liking it, I didn't remember much of the plot apart from the occasional scene. Reading it again, the book has proved to be much, much better than I remembered.
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is pure Douglas Adams - silly, smart and surreal in equal measure and and it's a novel that takes a collection of seemingly random events and connects them in a manner that is... well, holistic.
Some of the references are a little dated, but the book as a whole is a superb read and one that was well worth coming back to.
a funny, genre-defying trip through space and time...
short plot description: not possible, so just some highlights. Aliens, time travel, computers, romance, ghosts, detectives, poets, electric monks, cats, horses and that's just from the top of my head...
my thoughts: a wild and funny ride. What starts out as a mess of seemingly unconnected events has an astonishing explanation. Told tongue-in-cheek, a mostly delightful read.
my advice: light and amusing read.