The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

Tea-Time is the sequel to Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, and while funny, it doesn't quite live up to the standard set by that book. The only returning characters are Dirk, obviously, the still hilarious Sergeant Gilks, and a deceptively brief appearance by Janice, who has finally quit as Dirk's secretary and now works at the airport. The main new character is Kate Schecter, an American annoyed by the lack of delivery pizza in England. She's a well developed, strong character, and her growing annoyance at the strangeness happening around her is palpable. Dirk is still a great personality, although his tale is quite different from the first time around. His role is more central, and while he seemed mostly in control of things in the first novel, this time around he's constantly getting battered and toyed with, and he seems more and more helpless as things go on before he figures out what's happening.

The first book was about various sci-fi ideas like time travel and ghosts. This focuses on the idea of gods, specifically Norse ones, actually living on a slightly altered plane of existence and able to travel between there and our world. There is an interesting mystery involving them and a sequence of coincidences that actually aren't involving lots of rich people in entertainment industries. The characterization of Thor and Odin is definitely interesting, and Adams does some cool stuff exploring the idea. I wasn't in love with the overall writing though, as it went on it seemed to spend too much time with extraneous descriptions and events that weren't all too provocative or funny, and for all of the buildup to the final confrontation it's all ended quite abruptly and unsatisfactorily. About every strange occurrence that is hinted at is explained, and seemingly unimportant things from earlier are revealed to be more than they seem, and that's all interesting and works with the continuing theme of the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. But the actual characters just sort of go on with their lives, Kate seemingly completely ignored. I think Adams might have rushed to finish it, which is a shame because I know he can write a bit better than this. It's still an entertaining book, though.