This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. You may receive a partial or no refund on used, damaged or materially different returns.

Read full return policy

Payment

Secure transaction

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Details

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (37) from $1.99 + $3.99 shipping

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Douglas Adams

Follow

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency Mass Market Paperback – June 1, 1991

by Douglas Adams (Author)

4.3 6,720 ratings

Book 1 of 3: Dirk Gently

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$6.99","priceAmount":6.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"6","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"ed8EHEh7d03OHw%2F6MRgfac2fkR7piFHqVAhLEuzxxZMLABvD%2FM%2FM%2FuAeQXx1pFSsHOkJssKtJAInP5psxHe6uHXCG5Dw9n5X7Q2M1R3SEnXxvrJ41Xhh0mHOx8aqMXSpal3sgO0IMpp3Z7nxSUJ978ykb4VWUvT8lUv%2FJ8jc2BEgGWN5Z0kRpRNRwGcwffMC","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

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 traveler, AND the devastating secret of humankind! Detective Gently's bill for saving the human race from extinction: NO CHARGE.

Book 1 of 3

Dirk Gently
Print length

306 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Pocket Books
Publication date

June 1, 1991
Dimensions

4.5 x 0.9 x 6.75 inches
ISBN-10

0671746723
ISBN-13

978-0671746728
Lexile measure

960L
See all details

Frequently bought together

$6.99

Get it May 6 - 7

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

Ships from and sold by CYCLE BOOKS.

+

The Salmon of Doubt (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

$7.99

Get it as soon as Thursday, May 2

In Stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (Dirk Gently)

$13.28

Get it as soon as Thursday, May 2

In Stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Try again!

Details

Added to Cart

Some of these items ship sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

Douglas Adams
3,309
Paperback
74 offers from $1.94
Douglas Adams
14,675
Paperback
148 offers from $2.38
Douglas Adams
1,800
Paperback
107 offers from $1.96
Douglas Adams
25,584
Paperback
Teachers' pick
136 offers from $3.31
Douglas Adams
32
Hardcover
6 offers from $15.48
unknown author
273
Mass Market Paperback
7 offers from $38.95

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

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 traveler, AND the devastating secret of humankind! Detective Gently's bill for saving the human race from extinction: NO CHARGE.

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.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pocket Books; 5.2.1991 edition (June 1, 1991)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 306 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0671746723
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0671746728
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 960L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.08 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.5 x 0.9 x 6.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,222,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #19,119 in Humor & Satire Fiction (Books)
- #21,215 in Science Fiction Adventures

Customer Reviews:
4.3 6,720 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Douglas Adams

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

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.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

6,720 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all photos

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Christin Keck

A great start--but unfortunately not finished

Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2020

Verified Purchase

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

Helpful

Mike D

Brilliant..nothing much else to say really!

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2013

Verified Purchase

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

Helpful

Zachary W. Dyer

Brilliant cast, great story

Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2011

Verified Purchase

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

Helpful

Bernie Gourley

The lesser known work of Douglas Adams

Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2016

Verified Purchase

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

Helpful

gordtex

A Ripping Good Read

Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2014

Verified Purchase

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

Helpful