Scratch a Thief / House of Evil

SCRATCH A THIEF Eddie Pesak is married now, and he s got a young daughter. But there was a time when he was part of his brother Walter s gang. There was a time when he was the gun man on a series of robberies, like that time he accidentally shot a cop in the belly. They caught him on that last job, and he did his time. Now all he wants is to find a job and keep it before Drago the cop-with-a-grudge he shot all those years ago rousts him and gets him fired again. All Eddie wants is to steer clear of his past. But that s when Walter comes back into his life...and Sargatanas, his twitchy right-hand-man. They need him for a job, one last job that will get them all what they need to retire. But you don t retire from being a thief. It s like Drago says, once a thief... HOUSE OF EVIL Carey Ledbetter, ex-carny, has the perfect setup. As Zedek Kozma he heads a religious group at The Retreat while dispensing sex and drugs to the Hollywood elite. Trouble is, Carey is beginning to forget where carny ends and crazy devil worship begins the demons are starting to get too real. So when failing B-actor, Paul Berko, accidentally stumbles his way up to The Retreat, Carey isn t sure but that he might have finally met the devil himself. All Berko wants to do is get to know one of the acolytes, Anne Woodbridge. That and soak up some of the free booze. But if Kozma wants him to be the devil, he can be the devil. It could be the role of a lifetime...

John Trinian was born October 21, 1933 in Salinas, California. He and his brother, artist Kenn Davis, spent much of their childhood with neighbor John Steinbeck, and eventually hung out in San Francisco with the Beat writers in the 1950 s. Though not his birth name, Trinian adopted the name Zekial Marko as his preferred name, and went on to write for television as Marko, penning scripts for The Rockford Files, Kolchak the Night Stalker, Mission: Impossible and Toma, which he also helped create. His seven published novels were all written as by John Trinian though one title, Once a Thief, was also published under the Marko name, both as a book and screenplay. Described as a troubled soul, Marko could also be brilliant and charming, and a powerful friend. He died of complications related to emphysema on May 9, 2008, in Centralia, Washington.