The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul

This book is my favourite among all the novels and real-life adventures of Douglas Adams. The title is a parody of a book by St John of the Cross,much favoured by Catholic mystics. Here's how it begins: 

 INTO this dark night souls begin to enter when God draws them forth from the state of beginners—which is the state of those that meditate on the spiritual road—and begins to set them in the state of progressives—which is that of those who are already contemplatives—to the end that, after passing through it, they may arrive at the state of the perfect, which is that of the Divine union of the soul with God. 

The best way to introduce it is to set forth the main characters, in order of appearance, as follows:

• Kate Schechter, an American queuing for a ticket to Norway to see her boyfriend
• a large imperious man in front of demanding a ticket to Oslo. He has no credit card, nor, as it turns out, a passport. He gets angry, bangs the checkout desk and  a second later, it explodes.  He can do this tu

 

Much of it sticks in memory.I'll occasionally quote from Adams' book but describe its highlights from memory. Its hero, in the original sense of main character, is Dirk Gently who runs his Holistic Detective Agency. He lacks the deductive skill of Holmes, relying instead on a gift of clairvoyance, accidentally discovered when he was at college. He dropped out and advertises an uncanny skill at returning lost cats to elderly ladies who rewarded him handsomely for their return. More lucrative still is his ability to provide protection for clients involved in a shady criminal world. He can get them out of the way when danger looms. We first meet him snoring in his dingly London flat. Doesn't respond to a phone call at 11pm, nor at 6.50 the following morning and again at ever decreasing intervals, till it stops. His awakening is triggered by the need for a cigarette

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