The long dark tea-time of the soul

No cover — The long dark tea-time of the soul (1988, Heinemann)

246 pages

English language

Published Aug. 13, 1988 by Heinemann.

ISBN:: 9780434009213

(1 review)

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul is a 1988 humorous fantasy detective novel by Douglas Adams. It is the second book by Adams featuring private detective Dirk Gently, the first being Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. It was followed by the Salmon of Doubt, an incomplete Dirk Gently novel included in a posthumous collection of the same name. The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul has been adapted for radio, and several plot lines appear in the 2010 BBC TV series.

17 editions

Paul Oldham reviewed The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams

Rambling, and disappointing

2 stars

I bought this book for a second time (it turned out, although I still can't find my original copy but it is allegedly lurking somewhere in the house) and read it after a recommendation from someone on Mastodon but as I read it I remembered how disappointed I'd been the first time.

Fundamentally I think there's an interesting plot idea here but Adams' unravelling of it is confusing and assumes the reader knows as much as he does about Norse mythology and hence he can't be arsed to explain.