Ed Thomas dies at 77; owner of Book Carnival in Orange

Ed Thomas, the owner of Book Carnival, an independent mystery and suspense specialty bookstore in the city of Orange that has been called “the granddaddy of Orange County mystery bookstores,” has died. He was 77.

Thomas died of cancer Tuesday at his home in Yorba Linda, said his son Craig.

“You wouldn’t believe the authors who came by just to visit him and stay with him at his bedside,” Craig Thomas said. “For authors to go out of their way to visit him and see how he was doing just told me how well-respected he was.”

For nearly three decades, Book Carnival, run by Thomas and his wife, Pat, has been a literary oasis on south Tustin Avenue.

Thomas’ specialty bookstore also specialized in book signings.

Best-selling Newport Beach suspense author Dean Koontz was a Book Carnival customer living in Orange -- and not yet a publishing phenomenon -- when he did his first book signing at the shop in 1986 for his novel “Strangers.”

“It took some arm-twisting because I was afraid nobody would show up,” Koontz recalled Thursday. “There was never a book since then that I didn’t do a signing for Ed.”

He was not alone.

Over the decades, Tony Hillerman, Robert B. Parker, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, James Ellroy, T. Jefferson Parker and hundreds of other authors did book signings at Thomas’ shop.

Book Carnival, Crais said, was “a touchstone stop” for authors.

“As part of being a bookseller, Ed nurtured the careers of many, many writers, myself among them,” Crais said. “From the beginning, when no one knew who I was, Ed Thomas was the type of bookseller who read voraciously, and when he found a book he loved, he hand-sold it.

“It was a business of enthusiasm, and Ed helped us all to grow.”

Connelly agreed.

“In terms of book selling, his voice in supporting my work went further and was much stronger than the number of my books he sold,” Connelly said Thursday. “He’d have people calling in from London asking, ‘What have you read lately that’s good?’ He was a trustworthy name in the business.”

In 2003, Ed and Pat Thomas received the Mystery Writers of America’s Raven Award for their contributions to the popularity of the genre.

Koontz, who became a close friend of the couple, described Pat Thomas as “the charmer and everybody loved Pat; and Ed could be at times a little grumpy. He also was quite funny.

“And the fact that he just knew everything about the books in the genres he cared about, for anybody who cared about [those types of books], Book Carnival was the place to go to talk about them.”

Thomas’ enthusiastic support for authors generated some unexpected rewards.

Koontz dedicated his 1989 thriller “Midnight” to the Thomases.

And Connelly used Thomas’ name for a minor police detective character in his 1996 novel “The Poet.” The character, now retired and the owner of Book Carnival, reappeared in Connelly’s 2004 novel “The Narrows.”

Mystery writer Charles Knief also used the name Ed Thomas for a major character -- an ex-cop turned bodyguard -- in his 1998 mystery “Sand Dollars” as thanks to him for helping celebrate Knief’s 1996 literary debut with a book signing.

Thomas was born in Lynwood on Nov. 5, 1932. He attended Compton College and served in the Navy during the Korean War.

He was the longtime sales manager for a small Long Beach company that manufactured folding cartons when he made a midlife career change in 1980.

“I was in the business 26 years and, in all honesty, the last six years was sheer torture,” he told The Times in 1988. “I was burned out. . . . I guess you could say the drive wasn’t there to sell another carton. I thought, ‘What a dream to be in the book business.’ . . . Well, you never know unless you try.”

Book Carnival began as a general bookstore that dealt primarily with out-of-print books. But Thomas grew tired of stocking history books, cookbooks, art books and general fiction.

“I had no feeling for them,” said Thomas, who was devouring about 15 mysteries a week when he made the switch.

“I’m one in 100,000 who really enjoys what he does for a living,” he said. “I enjoy books.”

In addition to his wife and son, Thomas is survived by a daughter, Cindy Cary; two other sons, Carey and Chad; and four grandchildren.

A private funeral service will be held.

dennis.mclellan@latimes.com