The First Rule of Ten by Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay

The First Rule of Ten:  A Tensing Norbu Mystery  from Hay House Publishing is the first in a series about Tenzing Norbu, the "Dharma Detective."   Tenzing Norbu is an ex-monk who later joins the LAPD.  Room for some internal conflict there.

Ten eventually makes detective, and initially, enjoys his job, but as the job becomes more and more laden with paper work and desk time, he recalls his early fascination with Sherlock Holmes and the thrill of solving  crimes rather than dealing with red tape.

After being shot during a call to a domestic violence situation, Ten decides that perhaps his destiny lies elsewhere, and he decides to resign and follow his dreams as a private investigator.

Ten's intriguing and unusual background inform both his thinking and behavior.  Since Ten spent his childhood moving back and forth between his mother's home in Paris and  Dharamshala, the Tibetan monastery in India, where he lived with his father--the contrast between the worldly and the spiritual began early.

Enough said.   This detective novel has some unusual twists and introduces characters who will no doubt inhabit the next book in the series.  The authors have created a fascinating protagonist in Ten Norbu and an interesting plot with murder but not gore.  I really liked this one!

Fiction.  Mystery.  Jan.  2012.  312 pages (print version).