Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is a remarkable book by the zany author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy series. It’s about a man named Gordon Way, who was shot and killed when he got out of his car to close the boot, which had opened. Meanwhile, Richard, who worked for Gordon, had just attended a dinner party at St. Cedd's College, and was driving home when he swore he saw an image of Gordon way under a street light, and swerves. He is seen by a cop, to who he explains he saw an image, probably of guilt because he was going to take the weekend off, of his Boss.

Afterward, Police find the body. Most signs point to Richard. First, saying he saw his employer out of guilt. Secondly, that Richard's girlfriend, Susan Way (Gordon’s Sister), would inherit his money and his company, Wayforward Technologies, from his will. Without alternatives, he turns to an old friend, Svlad Cjelli (Current trading name: Dirk Gently), Holistic Detective¹ to prove him innocent.

On top of that, there is an odd professor at St. Cedd's University who can do odd things, such as odd magic tricks. He also seems to have been appointed his position, The "Urban Chronotis, the Regius Professor of Chronology" by King George III. In other happenings, there is also an Electric Monk² walking around, Believing all that is (And there is a lot!). Also appearing in this story is Michael, the ex-owner of the magazine called Fathom, purchesed by Gordon Way. Also, other mysterious characters will evolve and entertwine themselves in the story, such as Dirk's unpaid and neglected secretary.

An example of some of the Comedy writing in this book, would be the fact Richard once had a sofa, and a few workmen tried to get it up a stairwell to Richard’s apartment, but got it stuck. After a few more tries to get it up the stairs, the workmen find that it is now impossible to move the sofa up OR DOWN the stairwell. Richard made a computer diagram of the sofa. When Dirk made an appearance near the computer, he played around with the program. He almost solved the problem except the solution included turning off a part of the wall, and he gave up.

Dirk Gently is a real character all in himself. He was attending St. Cedds College when his roommate discovered he would mumble in his sleep after becoming drunk. To his surprise the mumblings were the questions to the Exam he had to take the next morning. Dirk soon found himself being wined by people wanting to find out the answers. Dirk soon realized he could get free meals this way, and could easily exploit the benifit. However, if you were to ask him his thoughts on his clairvoiant powers, he would deny any such powers.

Then things changed.

Dirk was asked to make an educated guesses under Hypnosis of the final exam questions, doing only as much studying as he would normally to pass the test. the test was to see if he truly had Clairvoiant powers. He accepted the test, thinking, of course, that this is the perfect oppertunity to show once and for all he had no powers. The Exam questions he produced were locked in a Deposit Box at the bank, and he would await the final examination. Nothing could go wrong.

Or so he thought.

Soon before the Exams his mother needed a dental procedure involving a rare dentist, and a lot of money. He accepted bribes of people to see his exam question predictions, and soon began handing them out frequently.

However, when the exams came out, his papers were exactly identical to the final exam sheets. Word for word. Down to the last Comma.

Anyone who wants Hilarious comedy, a mystery, and a touch of Sci-Fi should read this book. Don’t ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever EVER Hesitate to pick up and read this Book. It’s a book that could make you laugh out loud (If you understand it! I read it twice and I still don't get it completely!).

Final score: 10/10