Windows To The World

The First Rule of Ten : A Tenzing Norbu Mystery by Gay Hendricks, Tinker Lindsay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Tenzing Norbu is the product of a romance between a young American woman and a Tibetan monk. He spent his early formative years in Paris with his mother who died young. He then went to a a monastery in India where his after lived. He was completely  immersed in the the Buddhist teachings until late teenage years when his naturally rebellious personality finally made it increasingly difficult to stay on this past.The efforts of an intuitive monk set him one a path to teach Buddhism in Los Angeles where he realized that the kind of order that he wanted to belong to was law and order. Thus he became a part of the LAPD.

Once he asked his father why people die and the answer he received was that they died in order to learn how to live. Tenzing "Ten" after many years on the force decides to try to lives a private citizen helping others thus he becomes a PI.

The badge is barely cooling in his drawer when his first case chooses him rather than the other way around. A desperate woman comes to house in Topanga Canyon fleeing from a cult and mutters dire warnings about people dying. She leaves and Ten is not sure what to make of her but he finds out the next day that she has been brutally murdered.


Tenzing uncovers a machiavellian plot involving many criminal elements and lawyers. It boils down to a case of murders for either love or lucre. Filthy lucre is most likely the driving force.

Tenzing approaches the case as he does his life, trying to understand himself and his own feelings and motives for what he is involved with. It really works for him making this an interesting story with a complex character who is very likable. I am not exactly clear on the ins and outs of the first rule of Ten but I am very eager to read THE SECOND RULE OF TEN.