DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY

Like the author's classic HITCHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, this zany novel imaginatively combines science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and trendy philosophy into a risible and thought-provoking brew. Unlike HITCHHIKER, which Adams first cast as a serialized audio play and then novelized, GENTLY first appeared as a novel, which noted British writer/producer Dirk Maggs has dramatized for audio. It concerns the first important case of "holistic" gumshoe Dirk Gently, who encounters time-travel, space aliens, ghosts, an electric monk, and poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, among other weirdnesses, as he and his cohorts save humanity from oblivion. Maggs has deftly restructured the book for dramatic purposes and paced it to keep the listener ever alert to the abrupt, lightning-fast transitions. Sound, music, and voices are expertly textured. Y.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2009]