Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Dramatised)

I bought this audiobook after missing the last couple of broadcast episodes whilst away in India and I'm so glad I did. The recording is superb on mp3 player - every little detail comes over clearly so you can pick up on all the little comments and nuances.The story twists and turns right to the end and keeps you totally interested and amused.This is radio comedy at it's best, not laugh out loud but absorbing and intelligent. Like the Hitchhikers Guides, this is an audiobook I look forward to coming back to many times.

Douglas Adams stands apart from other authors in having most of his books professionally dramatised. This book is no exception, although I found it was the one that eluded my attention the longest.

Starting off with a lot of confusion & seemingly jumbled information, I initially put it aside for 1 year or so thinking that it was a bad note in an otherwise flawless collection of work.
However, I gave it another go &, once you get beyond the first CD, the plot begins to make sense & you understand why the book was written in such a way.

The basic plot is that Richard McDuff is falsely accused of murder after his boss (Gordon Way) is slain outside his car. McDuff then teams up with Dirk Gently (an enigmatic friend from college who has mysterious abilities) in order to find evidence to clear his name.

So far, so predictable.

What really makes stands this audio book out from the average detective yarn is the science included throughout the plot & the interesting complexities created by the Holistic nature of the universe (e.g. the fundamental inter-connectedness of all things, combined with time travel, means that a completed version of Kublai Khan (by Samuel Taylor Coleridge) spells the end of the human race).

And I suppose this is why it is such a great book - the plot & the sheer strangeness of the material demand repeat listening/ reading & rewards such people with added insights into what is an astonishingly intricate & well written plot.

Add to this that the story has been fully dramatised, with a well picked cast (including Harry Enfield at his best in the role of Dirk Gently) & you will find a true treat waiting to be discovered.
Get beyond the complexities of Adams' most difficult work & the scientific insights are there for the taking...

I read this book when it was first published and even then I didn't understand its conclusion, the audio version hasn't enlightened me but I'm prepared to give it a go.

A lovely production of high quality which we all come to expect from the BBC's treatments of Adams' work.

You grow to love Harry Enfield's portrayal of Gently and the supporting cast is superb, especially Olivia Colman as Janice, whose bitter displeasure at being Gently's employee brings some of the biggest laughs of the piece.

I've never been much for Adams' humour and this was - sadly - no exception. Treat it as sci-fi rather than sci-fi comedy and you can get a little out of it. But not much!

Though as a Whovian I was drawn to the references to the Dr Who episodes Shada and The City of Death so cunningly recycled into the narratives conclusion. But it was not enough to make it worth my while.