Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglass Adams In college Dirk Gently encouraged people to believe that he possessed supernatural powers, which he did not in fact have. However, by chance, a guess of what a certain final would look like, written before the test, proved to be the exact same as the final, to the comma. Dirk Gently was thrown out of college on the grounds of cheating, and he formed his own theories of the interconnectedness of the world, principles on which he founded a detective agency. From the title of the book and my opening sentences, I bet you think Dirk Gently is the main character of this book. He's not. Ha ha. I asssume that he is used for the title because none of the other characters make for such catchy intriguing titles. Except possibly for the electric monk. The electric monk is not the main character, either. His role in this story is a bit more confusing, but he is the one whose fault it is that this story takes place. See, an electric monk is a devise whose purpose it is to believe anything blindly. And so of course, when an idiot sends the monk to check if a part of the space ship is working, the electric monk says that it is, and the space ship blows up. How this ties in to the story would be obvious if only you would read it.
The actual protagonist in our story is a fellow named Richard MacDuff, who went to college with Dirk Gently. Richard has been possessed by some force, and that doesn't make him happy. Dirk Gently has waltzed into his life with his theories, and that doesn't make poor Richard any happier.
This is a hilarious novel. It also contains more than a few interesting theories/creatures. It is not as whimsical as his Hitchhiker series, and so it is able to have more of a plot.
Happy reading
