The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (Dirk Gently Series #2)

by Douglas Adams

Overview

Beloved, bumbling Detective Dirk Gently returns in this standalone novel—in trade paperback for the first time—from Douglas Adams, the legendary author of one of the most beloved science fiction novels of all time, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

When a check-in desk at London’s Heathrow Airport disappears in a ball of orange flame, the event is said to be an act of God. But which god? wonders holistic detective Dirk Gently. And how is this connected to Dirk’s battle with his cleaning lady over his filthy refrigerator…or to the murder of his latest client? Or are these events just another stretch of coincidences in the life of the world’s most off-kilter private investigator?

Douglas Adams, “one of England’s top exporters of irreverence” (Chicago Tribune), continues the implausible adventures of supersleuth Dirk Gently in his quest to solve the mysteries of the universe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476783000
Publisher:	Gallery Books
Publication date:	10/07/2014
Series:	Dirk Gently Series , #2
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	111,056
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.70(d)

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.

Table of Contents

This production includes two of Adams's Dirk Gently novels. Dirk is one of the odder creations in detective fiction, although he isn't odd by the standards of his creator, who also wrote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Dirk usually spends his time investigating odd coincidences and looking for lost cats; he believes in the "fundamental interconnectedness of all things." This philosophy leads him to search for lost London cats on Bahamian beaches, much to the dismay of his clients, who get billed for his travel expenses. The plot in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency deals with an Electric Monk, an unhappy ghost, a lost alien who needs a body to inhabit, a time-traveling Cambridge professor, a couch stuck in a stairwell, and an old university buddy, Richard MacDuff, who is suspected of the murder of his boss, computer company millionaire Gordon Way, the unhappy ghost who doesn't know how to be dead. All of these elements are tied together into a peculiar and amusing tale.

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul begins when Dirk oversleeps and misses an appointment with a client, who is found in his locked study, decapitated. The police are perfectly willing to ignore some very odd forensic evidence and declare the death a suicide. Dirk, driven by guilt and a fear of going back to his home (his refrigerator has started lurking in a very ominous way), decides to find out what the green-eyed, 7' horned creature that had been threatening his client knows about the so-called suicide. All he has to do is find the suspect. Once again, under Adams's existential guidance, it all connects in the end, whether one believes it or not.

The author does an excellent job narrating his ownwork, for only he could probably read it aloud without giggling or going mad.

Editorial Reviews

``The British author of the Hitchhiker trilogy and other immensely popular lunacies, Adams permits no whiff of common sense to spoil his new novel, which combines fantasy, hilarity and creeping horrors,'' remarked PW . Here, sleuth Dirk Gently investigates a lawyer and an advertiser who possess the soul of the god Odin. ``The plot's ramifications are marvelous, bloody and irresistible.'' (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This production includes two of Adams's Dirk Gently novels. Dirk is one of the odder creations in detective fiction, although he isn't odd by the standards of his creator, who also wrote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Dirk usually spends his time investigating odd coincidences and looking for lost cats; he believes in the "fundamental interconnectedness of all things." This philosophy leads him to search for lost London cats on Bahamian beaches, much to the dismay of his clients, who get billed for his travel expenses. The plot in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency deals with an Electric Monk, an unhappy ghost, a lost alien who needs a body to inhabit, a time-traveling Cambridge professor, a couch stuck in a stairwell, and an old university buddy, Richard MacDuff, who is suspected of the murder of his boss, computer company millionaire Gordon Way, the unhappy ghost who doesn't know how to be dead. All of these elements are tied together into a peculiar and amusing tale. The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul begins when Dirk oversleeps and misses an appointment with a client, who is found in his locked study, decapitated. The police are perfectly willing to ignore some very odd forensic evidence and declare the death a suicide. Dirk, driven by guilt and a fear of going back to his home (his refrigerator has started lurking in a very ominous way), decides to find out what the green-eyed, 7' horned creature that had been threatening his client knows about the so-called suicide. All he has to do is find the suspect. Once again, under Adams's existential guidance, it all connects in the end, whether one believes it or not. The author does an excellent job narrating his ownwork, for only he could probably read it aloud without giggling or going mad. Highly recommended for any library with an active sf/fantasy section, readers who enjoy British humor, and all Monty Python fans.--Barbara Rhodes, Northeast Texas Lib. Syst., Garland Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

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