WEBORGERS - Hard-Boiled Mysteries

BOOK REVIEW by E.Borgers

JOKER POKER
-by Richard Helms

Writer's Showcase
an imprint of iUniverse
Published: May 2000

===================================== Review by E.Borgers
=====================================

It's like a matinee at the movies. You know the theater, you know the actors, you know the kind of film that's playing and you know...it will be fun!
Gosh! even the seats seem suddenly good...
Exactly like a matinee during the 50's.

That's where the author, Richard Helms, takes us with his hard-boiled novel. We know this right from the first chapter. We know because we recognize the atmosphere, because we feel the action. And we know it will be short. And good!
All this being said, do not think that 'Joker Poker' is a kind of pastiche, one of those laborious novels that mimic hard-boiled novels from the 40's or 50's. No, that's not what the book is. It's contemporary. It takes place in the New Orleans of today. But the intention, the limits, and the story itself, all shown in this novel, are a welcome recap of the real hard-boiled spirit of the 50's.

Of course, Pat Gallegher is a little bit more eggheaded than his pure-boiled PI predecessors, and his egghead past shows here and there. However, his present life is really far from all the intellectual alleys that he had chosen to leave behind a long time ago.
Anyway, when you see Pat's figure, wrestling is more likely to be the evocation that will spring to your mind instead of metaphysical analysis.

Gravely short of money, Pat Gallegher plays jazz every night for a living. He also collects bad debts for a loan shark during his free time and tries his best to stay clear of gambling tables as he is still paying back a huge gambling debt.
In order to ease his money problem, Pat acts from time to time as a non-licensed PI for an attorney friend. This time, this activity will make him search for traces of a vanishing gigolo whom a rather wealthy dame is anxious to retrieve. The dame is rich because of her husband, a husband who really likes a good gamble... See?
When somebody will help the rich hubby swallow his birth certificate, Pat Gallegher is really in deep trouble. Was he not in the same house as the victim and exactly after the murder was committed? Bad, very bad for Pat!
On top of all this, Pat is under the spell of Meg, the beautiful amazon who happens to be a close friend of the rich dame. Too close even for Pat's comfort. And of course it gets worse. The local mob, the police, and some other nasty individuals will put some pressure on Gallegher.
A lot of pressure...
But Pat Gallegher is a fighter, and he will use all his resources to survive this onslaught.
Eventually he will solve the case.
Eventually he will put his hands on some real money.
Eventually his feelings will be hurt. Badly.
But Pat will survive, as usual.
"For I am, after all, a lucky s.. o.. b.." as per Pat's closing line.
Sure he is! Luck was on his side, once more time.

'Joker Poker' by Richard Helms is a small feast to read. It was not designed to revolutionize the art of the hard-boiled novel, nor was it an attempt to enlarge the PI territory and its ethics. Pat Gallegher's story sticks to the hard-boiled genre and it delivers. No more, no less. And this is a praise, not a criticism...believe me.
Very readable, effective, and enjoyable, 'Joker Poker' achieves what not many books could claim to be these days.

Highly recommended for spending a delightful "hard-boiled matinee" with it!

E.Borgers - 10 April 2000
Copyright © 2000, E.Borgers

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E.Borgers
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