Criminal Karma (34 page)

I want to thank
my agent, Loretta Fidel, for her friendship, guidance, and support, and my editor, Mark Tavani, for his invaluable insights and suggestions at various stages of this book’s composition. Thanks also to Dennis Ambrose and everyone at Random House who worked on the book and helped take it from concept to reality.

The thoughtful advice of Marty Smith, Diane Pinnick, Patricia McFall, Len Mlodinow, and other members of the Mavericks writing group is much appreciated.

To Charles Dickens, the godfather, patron saint, and archangel of literary orphans, I bow with profound gratitude and affection.

S
TEVEN
M. T
HOMAS
is the author of
Criminal Paradise
. He is also the award-winning author of many short stories, essays, and poems that have been published in more than fifty literary and small-press magazines in the United States and England. A magazine editor and journalist, he lives in Orange County, California, with his wife and daughter.

Criminal Karma
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2009 by Steven M. Thomas

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ballantine Books,
an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

B
ALLANTINE
and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Thomas, Steven M.
Criminal karma: a novel / Steven M. Thomas.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-345-51517-9
1. Criminals—Fiction. 2. California, Southern—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3620.H6428C74 2008 813’.6—dc22 2009020354

www.ballantinebooks.com

v3.0