Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joker Poker | 2000 | Richard Helms | Buy |
| 2 | Voodoo That You Do | 2001 | Richard Helms | Buy |
| 3 | Juicy Watusi | 2002 | Richard Helms | Buy |
| 4 | Wet Debt | 2003 | Richard Helms | Buy |
| 5 | Paid In Spades | 2019 | Richard Helms | Buy |
The Pat Gallegher series by Richard Helms is set in New Orleans and follows a jazz cornet player who becomes an informal investigator without any official status as a private eye or law enforcement officer. The city’s music, culture, and social tensions are as much a part of the books as the mysteries themselves.
The series ran from 2000 to 2003 with four back-to-back novels — Joker Poker, Voodoo That You Do, Juicy Watusi, and Wet Debt — before a long hiatus. Helms returned to the character with Paid In Spades in 2019, sixteen years after the previous entry. The five books represent some of his most decorated work, with nominations across the Shamus, Derringer, Macavity, Silver Falchion, and Thriller Awards, and wins for the Thriller Award (2011) and Silver Falchion Award (2020).
The New Orleans setting gives the series a distinctive atmosphere. Helms writes the city as a place where old money, poverty, corruption, and musical tradition overlap in ways that make crime both inevitable and hard to resolve cleanly.