Ted Thackrey Jr. Books In Order

Publication Order of Preacher Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Ted Thackrey Jr.
Ted Thackrey Jr. was an author, a Korean War veteran, and a newspaper reporter who, after stints at numerous papers, wound up at the Los Angeles Times in 1968. It was here that he became known over the following 2 decades for his colorful news stories, obituaries, and columns.

Ted got his Master of Arts degree from UCLA. Ted has penned freelance articles and stories for many top magazines which include: Playboy, Harper’s, Atlantic, and Reader’s Digest.

He spent a great deal of time in newspaper writing. He worked as a rewrite man, reporter, foreign correspondent, managing editor, and city editor, and even owned his own paper in Kansas. Papers he wrote for include The Wichita Eagle in Wichita, Kansas and the Los Angeles Examiner.

Ted ghostwrote more than 40 books and numerous screenplays, along with numerous books he signed his own name to. He died in July of 2001.

“The Preacher” was an Edgar Award finalist. “Wild Card” is a TV movie based off the series that starred Powers Boothe as the titular Preacher character.

“Gambling Secrets of Nick the Greek” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1970. In 1919, Nick Dandolos arrived in Chicago, Illinois all the way from Greece to pursue the American dream. But instead, after being tempted into this high-stakes game of cards, he is driven to both defeat and humiliation.

From these depths he starts his own painstaking mastery of the skills of gambling under Nestor’s tutelage. This crafty old gambler tells him that if God wished to gamble, then he’d come to Nestor.

Nick, in order to wreak vengeance on the powerful gangsters that defeated him, starts this meteoric ascent which carries him through some no-limit games with tycoons and kings, and lastly, gains for himself some legendary status as “Nick the Greek”.

Here is a fun little instruction guide to get yourself ready for your visit in either the local casino or in Las Vegas. This is an entertaining read, with some interesting talk about Nick’s knowledge of counting cards, betting methods, and his general thoughts about how to play. This is also a fascinating look at an interesting life.

“The Thief: The Autobiography of Wayne Burke” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1971. For over three decades, Wayne Burk (alias Slick Burk, Whitey Burk, Bill Martin, “The Nose”) has been a professional thief.

He selected this career for himself, with total knowledge of the potential consequences. He’s pursued it, with just the occasional detour or two in the “straight” world that he affects to despise, despite his occasional prison terms and almost fatal encounters with his own “professional colleagues” and the law. He considers himself to be a total success.

Wayne’s been the man behind the gun which induced various law abiding citizens to part with sums that totaled over $15 million, at the best of estimates, since he does not keep any records for understandable reasons.

No figment of some author’s own imagination, Wayne’s a flesh-and-blood man, horrifyingly real and is still at large to this very day as a fugitive from justice. Nor does the prospect of arrest and then imprisonment especially daunt the man. He’s been sentenced, at various times, to three life terms, and yet has spent an average of just 2 years behind bars on each one.

Possibly the most shocking part of this whole story is the way that current laws and penal reforms protect men such as Wayne, making their lives of crime much easier and making them more contemptuous of society. But the penalties for a life like Wayne’s aren’t limited to those at the disposal of police officers and the courts.

Indeed, legal penalties might be the least severe of all. In telling his own story, and every single word of this book is Wayne’s own, arranged from over 60 hours of tape-recorded interviews, this book lays bare for exactly what it is. Its price clearly evident.

“The Preacher” is the first novel in the “Preacher” series and was released in 1988. The unforgettable hero that once saved souls, and now deals death. A new kind of thriller with a new kind of hero. They call him Preacher.

An ex-priest that has given up on his own salvation, and is now ready to deal out his own special unique brand of justice in the dirtiest game of them all: murder.

The players of this game are the upstanding citizens of this low-down New Mexico town. The rules change with each bloodstained hand. And the jackpot is life. Or death. Particularly for a cardsharp that starts asking too many questions.

Shrewd, tough, and unforgettable. You have never met anybody quite like Preacher.

“Aces and Eights” is the second novel in the “Preacher” series and was released in 1989. In the seemy underworld of Las Vegas, winning is everything. But this time around, just surviving is enough.

Preacher is his name. As a former priest, he already knows how to save souls, however Nam taught him that saving lives was a bit more practical.

Now, he’s the ultimate gambling man. He’s playing the highest stakes poker game that’s ever been dealt. Preacher’s opponents are terrorists and mobsters. The jackpot’s an atomic bomb. And the odds are a million-to-one that the whole city of Vegas is going to be dealt the Dead Man’s Hand.

“King of Diamonds” is the third novel in the “Preacher” series and was released in 1989. Preacher’s stint as a priest taught him how to serve God, while Vietnam taught him how to fight the enemy. However what if his fiercest opponent of all winds up being a greedy and unscrupulous evangelist that is merely masquerading as a servant of God?

From the gambling casinos of South Bay City to the dazzling high-stakes world of the diamond market, to this grim basement where one brainwashed woman has to be carefully “deprogrammed”, he learns of the greatest gamble of all. A life-or-death fight against one modern day devil that is dressed in a saint’s garb.