Joker Poker [Paperback]

Richard Helms (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2000

First book in the Pat Gallegher Mystery Series. Slacker jazz cornet player in New Orleans' French Quarter agrees to help a desperate woman find her lover, whom she thinks has been murdered -- by her husband!

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Pat Gallegher, oversized cornet player, former forensic psychologist, and all-around gruff-but-lovable hard nose, plays nights in a French Quarter jazz club. He also works as an enforcer for a loan shark to whom he owes a gambling habit. When a wealthy woman hires him to find her missing lothario lover, fearing that her husband may have killed him, Pat's protective sense of justice emerges. He discovers the husband's connection to the local mob and realizes that he has been framed after the husband is murdered. For fans of noir mysteries, this debut offers a hearty concoction of violence, intrigue, sex, and even a little articulate humor.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Richard Helms is a forensic psychologist and recognized expert in the assessment and treatment of sex offenders. He lives in North Carolina with his wife, Elaine, their two children, and four cats.

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Writer's Showcase Press (May 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595089798
• ISBN-13: 978-0595089796
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,859,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Edgar award nominee, a bright voice to the genre., December 7, 2000

By 

Sandra L. Ceren (Del Mar, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Joker Poker (Paperback)

Admirable, smooth, funny, intelligent writing. Helms is a terific story-teller, reminiscent of his idols Chandler, Hammett, Spillane; hard-boiled, but with his own,unique brand of sharp, clever humor, a terrific way with words and a deeper understanding of the human condition. His tough, but sensitive, multi-faceted protagonist is someone I would want for a buddy. Joker Poker is well worth a read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Big Score for Story Set in the Big Easy, May 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Joker Poker (Paperback)

New Orleans is a perfect setting for a hardboiled mystery, as it is arguably the most corrupt city in the US. Helms uses this corruption to his advantage in Joker Poker, by portraying the expected legions of con men, gangsters, loansharks and pimps that have become a staple of the genre. In the center of this collection of ne'er-do-wells is Pat Gallegher,a man whose life is more than half over, with little to show for it. In an attempt to escape his past failures, he has settled into a life of playing music at night, and collected overdue debts for a shady loanshark by day. Despite his near-derelict subsistence level of survival, he maintains his own sort of "bushido", a code of honor that he uses to rationalize everything else in his life. The plot of Joker Poker is an old standard - the supplication by a client, the set-up, the murder, the frame, and finally the extrication by Gallegher from the trap set for him by -- whom? I know, but I won't tell (no spoilers here). The plot, being a stock form, allows Helms to roam free within it,and develop exacting, engaging characters and snappy, crisp dialogue. Pat Gallegher's character is a cross between Travis McGee and Spenser, but there is more here,a lyrical, poetic quality that is reminiscent of, but not as heavy handed as James Lee Burke. And that is, perhaps, fitting, as both Helms and Burke are Southern writers at heart. Here's hoping that Joker Poker's riveting climax on Lake Pontchartrain is not the last we will see of Pat Gallegher. There are characters here about which I would like to learn more, not the least of which is Gallegher himself.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Characters!, May 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Joker Poker (Paperback)

Joker Poker is the first in a series of books by Richard Helms featuring his reluctant knight Errant and adventurer Pat Gallegher. The series is set in New Orleans.

Pat Gallegher is a jazz coretist in a dive bar in New Orleans. He owes twenty thousand dollars to a loan shark so he works off his debt doing collections. He also does favors for friends with locating people when they cannot turn to the law; I guess you could call him a jack-of-all-trades. Cully Tucker, Gallegher's lawyer, shows up one night at the bar with a classy lady who needs help in finding her lover, and she can not turn to the police because she is married. Mrs. Vincouer thinks that her husband may of had something to do with the disappearance.

This mystery is one of the good, old-fashioned kinds that we used to read and love, one where the protagonist is hard as nails and goes to any lengths, legal or otherwise, to solve his case. This book is full of quirky characters that really give the story substance and add to the book's greatness.