To be fair about the rating, I'd say Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a 5/5, but The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul is rather a 3/5, so there you go.

The first one is just as brilliant as you can expect from Adams. I never fail to enjoy seeing the world, life and universe from his point of view. Also I strongly recommend the TV series.

The second it's just ok.

The 52 Book Club’s 2023 Challenge: 9. A book with a dedication

There is no bigger fan of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy 5-book trilogy than me (considering my current size and girth that might be a literally true statement). Douglas Adams has a wry sense of humor and a twist of a phrase which suits my sensibilities ideally. However, I had never read his Dirk Gently books. I was not expecting the brilliance of the Hitchhiker books and was not disappointed. The books are populated with bizarre and funny characters but the plot (honestly, never Adams's strong suit) is nearly incomprehensible. This collection of two novels shows Dirk Gently, a British detective, who seeks the interconnectiveness of the universe as he solves cases involving Norse gods and time traveling automated monks. At the end of both, I had to scratch my head and say, "What the hell just happened?" Adams can definitely turn a phrase. I love the opening sentence of the second book - "It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression, 'As pretty as an airport.'" But in the end, I was left feeling unfulfilled by the whole affair.

This book made no sense. I prefer the tv show

Review for each novel is posted separately: Agency, Tea-Time.

Начало было мучительным и приходилось продираться сквозь непонятных героев, но довольно быстро втягиваешься в абсурдность происходящего. Идеальное чтиво для отпуска на пляже, где я и прочитала первую часть. Вторая часть шла медленнее и из-за обрывистого чтения, магия улетучилась, но интерес к Дирку и его приключениям не пропал. Перечитывать не буду, но теперь интересно как они смогли из этого сделать сериал.

It is a real shame that Mr Adams has stopped writing. Owing to his absence of a belief in the afterlife, we cannot, in all probability, expect any future Douglas Adams novels; but this is a natural consequence of the fact that he is now, in fact, quite dead. But his books are still very funny and, if you can find the recordings cheap enough, you should listen to him reading his books.

1) The Holistic Agency introduces us to Dirk Gently. He believes that his cases are solved holistically in all areas. We follow him as he unravels a case involving Samuel Coleridge, ghosts, time travel, horses, and couches.

2) Dirk gets involved with a case that involves a missing girl, Thor and the gods, a Coke machine, and advertisers

Very quirky and a little hard to understand at first, but very delightful to read. The author has a great turn of phrase.
Examples: "Reg was having difficulty in finding the key from a collection which looked like something that a fit Ninja warrior could hurl through the trunk of a tree."
"Kate's spirits sank to the very bottom of her being and began to prowl around there making a low growling noise."

Funny and insane...the signature style of Douglas Adams...its sad that he won't write again... so good lended to us for such a short time...

Honestly, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency gets a 5, with 1 star knocked off the collection because The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul wasn't as amazing.

Preferred the first story. A few things aged poorly but mostly chill.

The first story felt methodical a majority of the lines would pay off later and there’s just enough evidence you can figure out most of it by the halfway point which is impressive for such a purposefully outlandish plot. Most characters where interesting, distinct, there for a good reason and many where quite unique.

The convoluted nature just isn’t the same in the second and what little mystery there is is told to the audience so the characters are playing catch-up.

Dirk is just kind of a punching bag who occasionally gives clues to Kate in this. He’s still in a major chunk of the story but most of his contributions barely matter as even if he hadn’t told Kate anything not much would have changed for her as she would’ve had to return home to Thor at some point and the contract dooming the villains was signed before the book began. The end is kinda anticlimatic and most plot threads feel unresolved and it’s not even like a funny anticlimax. I know book 3 was never finished so no clue stuff was being set up for book 3.

A good radio production regardless.

After first seeing the BBC television adaption, reading the books, watching the very loosely adapted (but oddly good in some ways in it's own right) Netflix adaption, and even the comics, by listening to this radio dramatizing I think I have consumed all versions of Dirk Gently as fully and completely as Dirk would a pizza. In this and the books version of the character, anyway.
And with that in mind, this radio adaption is the most accurate and faithful to the book, being a proper adaption of the plot of the books and being faithful to the characters. So you have shining through the audio the comic, surreal brilliance of Douglas's creation.
Dirk Gently is detective who believes in the 'interconnected-ness of all things' and by utilising that, he goes about solving his cases, which are also bizarre, funny, and sometimes even horrifying and bloody.
More connected then Douglas Adams other work, 'Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy', (which is apt given the main characters 'holistic' leanings) This has the style and humour of his more famous work but in a more contemporary setting. However, in adaption to keep it accurate they kept the use of the phone answering machine (important to the plot), which giving this is a modern version, is out of place. Little pedantic points aside.
This is well performed and adapted, funny, with great nods to hitchhikers in the second story. However, that did leave me wanting a bit more of a resonant ending then the punchline it ended with, given the awareness of it being the final Dirk Gently to adapt, but it may work better for some other people.
All in all, have brought in my life to connect to all various versions of this great comic creation, I have come up with the conclusion that for those looking for the most faithful adaption this is one, the most intelligent the BBC one, the most fun and inventive, the Netflix one, and the original and golden, Douglas Adam's own written words. That is if you want to explore, past this brilliant and entertaining version. Case closed.