Karma

Hard-nosed beat cop Jill Smith combs Berkeley for a Buddhist guru-killing cultist

In Berkeley, California, Telegraph Avenue is the headquarters for the city's strangest inhabitants. Cultists, drug addicts, and hippie burnouts wander its streets, looking to raise their consciousness or, if that fails, to just get high. And Jill Smith walks with them, a beat cop with her finger on the pulse of one of the most unique neighborhoods in America.

With time on her hands after her divorce, Jill lets...