In this prequel to the popular Tenzing Norbu Mystery series, we meet Ten as a confused 13-year-old boy—before his life as an ex-Buddhist-monk, ex-LAPD-officer, turned private eye. The Broken Rules of Ten invites readers to join Ten as he navigates his first brush with mysticism, mystery, and maybe even murder. Like most teenagers, Ten’s life is rife with change and emotional upheaval. In addition to his newfound fascination with girls and some unexpected bodily sensations, he’s been spending less time with his Parisian mother and more time in his Tibetan father’s Dharamshala monastery. This, in conjunction with the fact that his best friends, Yeshe and Lobsang, aren’t having the same revelations about the world around them, leaves Ten feeling puzzled and isolated. When the brilliant 17-year-old scholar Lama Nawang, already a legend and a star, takes the lonely boy under his wing, Tenzing senses that his luck is about to change—and it does, but not in the way he expects. He becomes entangled in a dark web of intrigue including the theft of a secret teaching, the betrayal of a community’s trust, and the mysterious death of a local Indian boy. Tenzing breaks almost every rule in the monastery, along with a young girl’s heart, as he struggles to recover the Buddha’s sacred text and uncover the real reason behind Lama Nawang’s cascading series of seemingly wrong actions.

“Don’t ignore intuitive tickles lest they reappear as sledgehammers.” That’s the first rule of Ten. Tenzing Norbu (“Ten” for short)—ex-monk and soon-to-be ex-cop—is a protagonist unique to our times. In The First Rule of Ten, the first installment in a three-book detective series, we meet this spiritual warrior who is singularly equipped, if not occasionally ill-equipped, as he takes on his first case as a private investigator in Los Angeles. Growing up in a Tibetan Monastery, Ten dreamed of becoming a modern-day Sherlock Holmes. So when he was sent to Los Angeles to teach meditation, he joined the LAPD instead. But as the Buddha says, change is inevitable; and ten years later, everything is about to change—big-time—for Ten. One resignation from the police force, two bullet-wounds, three suspicious deaths, and a beautiful woman later, he quickly learns that whenever he breaks his first rule, mayhem follows. Set in the modern-day streets and canyons of Los Angeles, The First Rule of Ten is at turns humorous, insightful, and riveting—a gripping mystery as well as a reflective, character-driven story with intriguing life-lessons for us all.

“Beware your old, limited models of thinking: no matter how safe they make you feel, eventually you will become their prisoner.” That’s the second rule of Ten. Tenzing “Ten” Norbu—ex-monk and ex-cop—is back! In The Second Rule of Ten, the next book in the Dharma Detective series, our daring detective faces a dead Hollywood producer, an ailing philanthropist’s missing sister, and a way-too-sexy pathologist, who are all wreaking havoc with his serenity—and that’s before the arrival of cartel king and arch-nemesis Chaco Morales. As Ten moves deeper into the case, things get personal when his two best friends in Dharamshala go missing, and his former LAPD partner, Bill, turns oddly distant. Ten’s journey for the truth propels him from gang-ridden, dangerous Boyle Heights in east LA to Lhasa, Tibet, and back again. He must wrestle with more than one limiting thought and inner enemy if he is to identify, much less overcome, his rapidly multiplying outer ones. The clues to solving this complex cluster of mysterious events are sprinkled all over the City of Angels, but the ultimate answers, as always for Ten, lie inside.

Keep current with the truth: we’re only as weak as our secrets—especially the ones we keep from ourselves. That’s the Third Rule of Ten. As the go-to private detective for a bevy of high-profile clients, our beloved ex-Buddhist monk, ex-LAPD officer, Tenzing �Ten” Norbu, has finally found his stride. With his beautiful pathologist girlfriend, a healthy bank account, and a steady stream of clients, courtesy of middle-aged movie star Mac Gannon and rising political star Bets McMurtry, Ten’s life is bursting with activity. But it’s not all joy and happiness. The death of his father and a growing abundance of secrets—both personal and professional—leave Ten feeling an unexpected depth of sorrow and confusion. Even with the emotional turmoil, nothing can stop Ten from taking the case when McMurtry’s housekeeper goes missing. The investigation leads him down a dangerous path littered with bodies, untraceable prescription drugs, and human organ trafficking. But nothing is as shocking as the realization that the mastermind behind it all is none other than—Chaco Morales, a criminal that slipped through Ten’s hands once already. The Third Rule of Ten will have readers on the edges of their seats, as they learn, along with Ten, that there is a fine line between healthy privacy and unhealthy secrecy. Knowing the difference may just determine whether Ten will stop Chaco or lose himself.

Let go of expectations – they always lead to suffering That’s the Fourth Rule of Ten Ex–Buddhist monk, former LAPD detective, and current private investigator Tenzing “Ten” Norbu knows Bill Bohannon as many loving husband, devoted father, police administrator, former partner, and best friend. But then an uninvited guest from Bill’s past upends the Bohannons’ Fourth of July barbecue, revealing in levelheaded Bill the most unexpected behavior—behavior that awkwardly drops Ten in the middle of a crumbling marriage. Ten makes an unexpected move of his own when he agrees to pro bono work for a convicted felon. But it was dope slinger Godfrey Chambers Ten had repeatedly busted during his days on the force, not the reformed and rechristened G-Force who is now asking for Ten’s help in claiming money left to him by a kind-hearted benefactor—and contested by the benefactor’s self-serving family. Soon Ten’s investigations lead him down the darkest corridors of the Internet and halfway around the globe to Sarajevo as he navigates the seedy worlds of human trafficking and personal regret. As his cases intertwine, Ten will rely on the wisdom of the Buddha and his own network of relationships—with super hacker Mike, outrageously idiosyncratic assistant Kim, old monastery friends Yeshe and Lopsang, Serbian cabbie and former policija Petar, and, of course, feline rock Tank—to solve the puzzle ­ and keep free of his own tangled past. Especially when an old flame returns. The Fourth Rule of Ten, the thrilling fourth book in the Dharma Detective series, proves the only thing better than exceeding expectations is having none at all.

Be mindful, both making and keeping commitments, that they be springboards to liberation, instead of suffering. That’s the Fifth Rule of Ten Ten and his fiancée, Julie, excitedly await the arrival of Ten’s best friends, Lama Yeshe and Lama Lobsang. Ten’s boyhood friends are now the Head Abbots at Tenzing’s former monastic home in India. Ten has helped Yeshe and Lobsang organize a fundraising event sponsored by the Los Angeles Buddhist temple where Tenzing first taught years ago, before shedding his robes to attend the police academy. The big feature of the event will be the unveiling of a sacred sand-painted mandala that the monks will construct in the center of the temple. At the premiere, however, a group of hooligans commit an outrageous act that catapults the story into action. To complicate matters, one of the novice lamas—a brilliant protégé of Lobsang’s—goes missing. Soon a series of strange crimes beset the city, some physical, some cyber. Each crime is unique, but all are mysteriously interconnected. Ten’s attempts to solve those crimes pull him into a dark mirror-world of his sacred Tibetan Buddhist tradition; soon he is engaged in a life-and-death battle with a powerful shadow presence. He joins forces with Yeshe, Lobsang, his ex-partner, Bill, and his hack-tivist buddy, Mike, to track down the Patient Zero of this epidemic of criminal chaos. Finally, he must face the truth: the source of the evil, and the solution, are a lot closer to home than he first thought.