Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency — Douglas Adams

Introduction

This is the first book in Douglas Adam’s lesser known Sci-Fi series with which it also shares its name. While it never reached the cult status of its sister series A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I found it to be equally as hilarious.

Cambridge

It will carry particular charm to any fellow Cambridge University students, as those portions of the book which happen on Earth largely take place in the picturesque town of Cambridge, with countless references to quirky university traditions and norms that an unfamiliar reader may well chalk up to Douglas Adam’s vivid imagination when they are in fact only a slightly hyperbolic version of the absurdity of the real thing.

Style

Taking a leaf out of the whodunit genre to which the book is an homage and caricature in equal proportion, the book only reads beautifully but somewhat chaotically until the mystery is finally elucidated in the final pages of the book with a beautiful and impressive self-consistency suddenly emerging.

Recommendation

Anyone who has enjoyed the quirky humour of A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy should pick up a copy and see whether they agree with my rather entusiastic reading of Dirk Gentley.