"DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY
BY DOUGLAS ADAMS IS THE SKATEBOARD ON WHICH THE THINKING PERSON PLAYS HOOKY FROM THE UNIVERSE..."
- Philadelphia Inquirer

There is a long tradition of Great Detectives, and Dirk Gently does not belong to it.  But his search for a missing cat uncovers a ghost, a time-traveller, AND...  the devastating secret of humankind!

DETECTIVE GENTLY'S BILL FOR SAVING HUMAN RACE FROM EXTINCTION:  NO CHARGE

Bestselling author Douglas Adams revs up his wit to warp-speed in his latest ghost/horror/detective/time-travel/romantic comedy epic, teetering once again "on the fringe of inspired lunacy!"
- United Press International

"ANYONE WHO RELISHES A HILARIOUS AND IRREVERENT BIT OF LUNACY WILL GREET WITH DELIGHT THIS NEW NOVEL BY THE AUTHOR OF THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY."
- San Diego Union

OVER 8 MILLION DOUGLAS ADAMS BOOKS IN PRINT

DON'T LEAVE EARTH WITHOUT THE HILARIOUS INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY

It's a wildly funny novel about the end of the world and the happy-go-lucky days that follow it...

About the worst Thursday that ever happened, and why the Universe is a lot safer if you bring a towel...

AND BE SURE TO READ
THE RESTURANT AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE
LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING
SO LONG AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH

Available from Pocket Books

The saga continues...
The night sky over the planet Krikkit is the least interesting sight in the entire Universe.

But the people of Krikkit are planning on doing something about it - destroy the rest of the Universe.

The end is coming and only Arthur Dent can stop it in Douglas Adams's Life, The Universe and Everything.

Only five beings stand between the white killer robots of Krikkit and their goal of total destruction of the Universe.

Arthur Dent - mild-mannered space and time traveler who is trying to learn how to fly by throwing himself at the ground and missing.  Ford Prefect - who has decided to go mad for a little while to see how he likes it.  Slartibartfast - the indomitable vice-president of the Campaign for Real Time, who is traveling in a ship powered by the irrational behavior of numbers on restaurant checks.  Zaphod Beeblebrox - two-headed, three-armed ex-head honcho of the Universe.  Trillian - sexy space cadet who is torn between a persistent Thor, the Thunder god, and a depressed Zaphod Beeblebrox.

How will it all end?  Will it end?  Only the crew knows as they try to avert Armageddon and save the Universe for life as we know it (and don't know it).

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams's first two books, have become cult classics loved by millions on both sides of the Atlantic.  Life, The Universe and Everything is the third (and final?) chapter in the amazing adventures of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy crew.  Whether you are already a Douglas Adams fan or are just now finding out about his unique universe, hang on a Douglas Adams examines the most important thing around: Life, The Universe and Everything.

DOUGLAS ADAMS was born in Cambridge, England, in 1952.  He has written for radio, television and theater and has worked at various times as a hospital porter, barn builder, chicken-shed cleaner, bodyguard, radio producer and script editor of Doctor Who.

He is not married, has no children and does not wish to hear from any more Beverly Hills real estate agents.

Jacket painting © 1982 by Peter Cross
Jacket typography by Ken Sansome

Raves for
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

**** Four Stars for
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

"It's science fiction and it's extremely funny - a rare and precious conjunction is a field where what usually passes for humor is a bad pun at the end of a dull story.  There's nothing dull about the Guide, which is inspired lunacy that leaves hardly a science fiction cliché alive."
Washington Post

"The feckless protagonist, Arthur Dent, is reminiscent of Vonnegut heroes, and his travels afford a wild satire of present institutions.  ...File it somewhere between Monty Python and The Sirens of Titan.
Chicago Tribune

"I recommend these books wholeheartedly.  Once you start reading either book you will be hooked into a stream-of-consciousness brand of creative insanity rivaling Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for sheer chutzpah.
Los Angeles Herald Examiner

"As parody, it's marvelous: It contains just about every science fiction cliché you can think of.  As humor, it's, well, hysterical."
Philadelphia Inquirer

DELIGHTFULLY WEIRD... THERE ARE PASSAGES THAT ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO READ WITHOUT LAUGHING LOUD AND LONG..."
- The Boston Sunday Herald

When a passenger check-in desk at London's Heathrow Airport disappears in a ball of orange flame, the explosion is deemed an act of God.  But which god, wonders holistic detective Dirk Gently?  What god would be hanging around Heathrow trying to catch the 3:37 to Oslo?

And what has this to do with Dirk's latest - and late - client, found only this morning with his head revolving atop the hit record "Hot Potato"?

Amid the hostile attentions of a stray eagle and the trauma of a very dirty refrigerator, super-sleuth Dirk Gently will once again solve the mysteries of the universe...

"FUNNIER THAN PSYCHO, MORE CHILLING THAN JEEVES TAKES CHARGE AND SHORTER THAN WAR AND PEACE....  THE LONG DARK TEA-TIME OF THE SOUL IS ANOTHER SEMIPRECIOUS GEM IN ADAMS' GLITTERING DIADEM OF HUMOR."
- The Birmingham News

"CLEVER AND FUNNY... MR. ADAMS CREATES A UNIVERSE OF URGENT TRIFLES THAT ADD UP TO AN ASTRONOMICAL FARCE...."
- The New York Times Books Review

MOSTLY
HARMLESS

It's very easy to get a little disheartened when your planet has been blown up, the woman you love has vanished in a misunderstanding about the nature of space-time, the spaceship you are on crashes in flames on a remote and Bob-fearing planet and all you have to fall back on are a few simples sandwich making skills.  However, instead of being disheartened, Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life a bit and, immediately, all hell breaks loose.

Hell takes a number of forms: there is the usual Ford Prefect form of hell, fresh hell in the form of-all new version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which behaves in an altogether more mysterious, sinister and airborne manner, and a totally unexpected hell that arrives in the form of a teenage girl who utterly startles Arthur Dent by being his daughter when he didn't even know he had one.

Much as Arthur would love to stay in his rural sandwich-making idyll, he is forced to set off on his travels once again, this time on the back of a mysterious Perfectly Normal Beast.  Can he save the Earth from total destruction throughout all dimensional probabilities?  Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover?  Can he save the Grebulons?  Can he save his daughter Random from herself?

Of course not.  He never even works out what is going on, exactly.

Will you?

Mostly Harmless: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Part Five: The book that gives a whole new meaning to the word trilogy.

Jacket illustration © 1992 by Peter Cross
Author photograph © 1992 by Red Saunders

IN THE BEGINNING THE UNIVERSE WAS CREATED... THIS MADE A LOT OF PEOPLE ANGRY AND HAS BEEN WIDELY REGARDED AS A BAD MOVE.

You decide.

Come along on a zany journey to the low-rent neighborhood of the Cosmos with earthling Arthur Dent, sexy space cadet Trillian, that imperturbable alien Ford Prefect and Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-head Honcho of All Creation.

Don't forget to bring a towel, but don't bother to pack a lunch.  You'll be dining at...

THE RESTURANT AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE

THE HILARIOUS SUCCESSOR TO THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY

Is there "Life" on earth?

This apparently absurd questions assumes its most urgent and madcap expression, but is not examined by Douglas Adams, in So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, the fourth (if you believe that you'll believe anything) book in The Hitchhiker's Trilogy.

Something very weird happens (so what else is new?) to Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, and all the new voidoid gang when they return to Earth after eight years of crazed wanderings around the galaxy.  Foolishly, young Arthur is glad to be back.  (What a nerd!)

Still wearing his bathrobe and carrying his tructy towel, Arthur sets out once again (this time he takes no chances and travels by commercial airline) on a wacked-out quest for the right result... and the answers to these embarrasing questions:

What really happened the day the Earth was demoloshed?
Why did all the dolphins disappear?
What is God's Final Message to His creation?

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is, as has been remarked before, often and accurately, a pretty startling kind of thing.  Here and now in the best adventure yet, we mistakenly meet:

• Rob McKenna, an unknown Rain God who has categorized 231 types of precipitation, none of which he likes


• Wonko the Sane (aka John Watson), a mysterious Californian living in a house on the boffo coast called "The Outside of the Asylum."


• Fenchurch, the lovely and slightly-off-the-floor lady who wins Arthur's heart and turns out to be the girl of his dreams.


• A few odd animals including the Babel fish and the stupidest dog in the Universe, Know Nothing Bozo.

Don't Panic.  Douglas Adams has done it again!  So put on your Final Message rainhats and live happily ever after.

DOUGLAS ADAMS was born in Cambridge, England, in 1952.  He has written for radio, television and theater and has worked at various times as a hospital porter, barn builder, chicken-shed cleaner, bodyguard, radio producer and script editor of Doctor Who.  He is the best-selling author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Resaurant at the End of the Universe, and Life, The Universe and Everything.

Jacket painting copyright © 1984 by Peter Cross
Author photo by Jerry Bauar