Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Front cover from the first UK hardcover edition
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| Author | Douglas Adams |
|---|---|
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Series | Dirk Gently |
| Genre |
Fantasy Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | UK: William Heinemann Ltd., US: Pocket Books |
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Publication date
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1987 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback and Hardcover), Audiobook (cassette and compact disc) |
| Pages | 306 (paperback edition) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 320855177 |
| Followed by | The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
|---|---|
| Home station | BBC Radio 4 |
| Starring | Harry Enfield |
| Written by | Douglas Adams, Dirk Maggs |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a humorous detective novel by Douglas Adams, first published in 1987. It is described by the author on its cover as a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic".
The book was followed by a sequel, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. The only recurring major characters are the eponymous Dirk Gently, his secretary Janice Pearce and Sergeant Gilks. Adams also began work on another novel, The Salmon of Doubt, with the intention of publishing it as the third book in the series, but died before completing it.
A BBC Radio adaptation of six episodes starring Harry Enfield was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from October 2007. A second series based on the sequel was broadcast from October 2008. A 2010 television adaptation by Howard Overman for BBC Four borrowed some of the characters and some minor plot elements of the novel to create a new story.
The genesis of the novel was in two Doctor Who serials written by Adams, City of Death, (in which an alien tries to change history at the cost of erasing humanity from existence), and in particular the cancelled serial Shada, which first introduces a Cambridge professor called Chronotis who is hundreds of years old. He has been living and working at a Cambridge college for centuries, apparently attracting no attention (noting with appreciation that the porters are very discreet). In Shada, Chronotis's longevity is due to him being a Time Lord, and his time machine is an early model TARDIS. These trademark elements from Doctor Who were removed by Adams for Dirk Gently. Shada was cancelled before completion due to a production strike and later released on VHS with Tom Baker narrating the unfilmed segments.
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