Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams

This has been an anomaly in my list of Books To Read for years, fanboy as I am of Hitch-Hiker's Guide and Adams' scientific brilliance. Stumbling across his headstone in Highgate cemetery the other day finally prompted me to pick it up off the shelf.

It's a fun read, throwing together a skipload of ideas into a convoluted plot and featuring plenty of engaging characters, particularly the titular gumshoe. It was published in the eighties, and is set in Islington leading to some nostalgic moments. I couldn't help but smile that, in a sci-fi book involving time travel etc, a plot point revolves around somebody buying one of those fancy new phones with buttons instead of a dial.