Pat Gallegher
Created by Richard Helms

A promising new private eye was unleashed in Richard Helms' Joker Poker in the guise of PAT GALLEGHER, a guy whose past seems to beg more than a few questions.

Pat's a charming, but troubled-plagued jack-of-all trades -- a big bruiser who plays jazz cornet at nights at Holliday's, a local dive, in the heart of the French Quarter, accompanying a nonagenarian piano player called Sockeye Sam. But he also finds time for other things, like acting as an unlicensed private eye, and as a sometime-leg breaker for Justin Leduc, a local loan shark. It seems somewhere in his past, besides the stints as a seminary student, forensic psychologist and college professor, he had a little gambling addiction problem which left him into Leduc for twenty large. Since Pat's a big chunk of a guy, suitably fearsome-looking, Leduc agrees to allow him to work off his debt by shaking down other gamblers with delinquent accounts. That's when Pat decides to go into the business of doing "favors for friends, and friends of friends," as a way of salving his conscience. Those favours include "finding lost objects and people when it was too embarrassing or compromising for the friends to go to a real detective."

Joker Poker, originally published by print-on-demand big shots, iUniverse, was an engaging and promising debut. It suffered from the typical first novel-kitchen sink approach, perhaps a bit too energetic in its piling on of back-story, but don't let that discourage you. Author Helms can spin a tale, and he's created some truly intriguing supporting characters here, well worth a return visit. He also makes good use of the Big Easy's colourful setting. and subsequently, each book has jumped from strength to strength. And Pat? Well, he just grows on ya...

Pat Gallegher isn't the only private eye character that Helms has written. In 2004, her started another series, featuring San Francisco gumshoe Eamon Gold. Like Gallegher, Helms has been an actor, a racing car driver, college professor and is currently a forensic psychologist in North Carolina. An expert on sex crimes, he's served as president of the North Carolina Association for Management and Treatment of Sex Offenders. He retired in 2002 to take a position with a small college near his home, where he works as a Student Counselor and teaches the occasional psychology course.

NOVELS

• Joker Poker (2000) .Buy this book
• Voodoo That You Do (2001) .Buy this book
• Juicy Watusi (2002) .Buy this book
• Wet Debt (2003)..Buy this book

RELATED LINKS

• Murders in the Vieux-Carre
  The official website of Richard Helms and his Pat Gallegher mystery series.
  
  
• Richard Helms: My Journal
  Mama, we're all bloggers now.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.