Malcolm at Midnight

Malcolm Harding yearns for freedom, for the ability to make his own choices and even his own mistakes. Instead, he's forced to give up college to care for his mother in her secluded home in the windswept California town of Cambria. Miriam's mind is slipping into the abyss of Alzheimer's, and she's becoming increasingly unpredictable and violent. Unfortunately, under the terms of his father's will, Malcolm cannot institutionalize her or place her in assisted living.
Yet something else keeps him with Miriam-he is desperate to learn the fate of the three beloved horses he left in her care during his one and only college year. But Miriam can't, or won't, tell him what she did with them. She calls Malcolm a beast and seems intent on crushing his spirit, if not his mind and body as well. Gilby McCall is a personal chef with the unusual job of preparing meals for an Orthodox Jewish couple.
But soon the work becomes intense and alarming when they pile extra duties on him. When he is suddenly fired, Gilby accepts an invitation to take part in a cooking contest in Las Vegas. Before he leaves, however, Fate brings him to Cambria, where he meets the handsome, mysterious Malcolm Harding. Although both men clearly have secrets and personal problems to overcome, they are strangely drawn to one another.
Yet before they can explore the possibility of a romantic relationship, sinister forces intervene, revealing the beasts hidden deep within themselves...