Thomas Garlinghouse

Mind Fields Thomas Garlinghouse

A mystery novelist. A tormented physicist. A metaphysical adventure.

In the early 1950s, the People's Republic of China invaded and annexed Tibet, forever altering the country's political and social landscape. For mystery writer Taylor Hamilton and his wife, Kate, these events seem part of a remote, forgotten past. Having fled San Francisco for the quiet of a small, coastal town, all Taylor wants to do is surf and write mysteries.

But for Taylor's neighbor, an old man named Havelock Rowland, the invasion of Tibet-and its bloody aftermath-are forever emblazoned on his psyche. Reclusive and secretive, Havelock is a retired physicist who lives alone with an immense black dog and harbors a complicated and painful personal history.

Gradually but inexorably, Taylor is drawn into Havelock's world of Tibetan metaphysics, and soon the past clashes with the present as strange events emerge to overtake the picturesque coastal town. A dangerous animal and a mysterious young man begin to threaten the area's inhabitants.

From the Chinese takeover of Tibet in the early 1950s to present-day San Francisco, Big Sur, and Northern California, Mind Fields is a story of adventure, loss, mysticism, and ultimately, the importance of friendship and connection.