Colleen Helme Books In Order

Publication Order of Shelby Nichols Books

Publication Order of Flame of Destiny Books

Publication Order of Sand and Shadows Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Colleen Helme is a bestselling mystery author best known for writing the Shelby Nichols series of novels. She wrote her first novel “Flame of Destiny” the first of the Flame of Destiny series of novels in 2011. While it was just for kicks, she enjoyed it so much that she decided that she needed to learn all about becoming a professional author. Her supportive husband soon found her a community college with a writing class and she was soon learning about the art of novel writing. The class helped her with aspects of writing such as scene writing, character motivation, and showing rather than telling among many others. She has never looked back since and has been writing for more than a decade. She currently has several series to her name including the “Shelby Nichols Adventure” series, the “Flame of Destiny” Series and several single standing novels. Helme cites her biggest influences as C.S. Lewis of “The Chronicles of Narnia” for their wisdom. She also loves the world-building in the science fiction works of Catherine Asaro and everything by Jude Deveraux and Madeline Brent. All of these have been a huge influence and made her the writer she is today. She currently lives with her family in the Rocky Mountains. When she is not writing her novels, she loves to go hiking, biking, relax with a good book and play card and board games with friends and family.

Colleen has asserted that while she loves writing mysteries she started out writing and reading fantasy novels. She had always loved the idea of magic ever since she was a child and also loved a good romance story though she tends to stay away from anything depressing and dark. Since reading is her escape from reality she loves books with happy endings. She never thought that Carrots her first novel of the Shelby Nichols would be a mystery. In fact, she knew nothing about mysteries and cozy mysteries and she just found that her writing evolved naturally as she told the story. Colleen Helme’s writes of a character that as the ability to read minds and as it progresses she just kept getting into trouble that she could not stop writing. Once it was finished, she did not even know which genre it fit into and it took her a while to figure it out which is probably the reason it is named “Shelby Nichols Adventures” as opposed to the more fitting Shelby Nichols Mysteries. Over the course of the series, the character has evolved and is caught up in all manner of mysteries and murders that could get her killed. Helme has also evolved as a writer penning more complex and intriguing mysteries as she develops the lead character.

Colleen Helme writes some of the most intriguing mysteries the best of which are exemplified by the Shelby Nichols mysteries. There is a little bit of everything in the novels from police investigation to the mafia, shopping, amateur sleuthing, with and humor. The lead in the Shelby Nichols series is Shelby, a thirty-something woman who goes to get some vegetables for the evening meal only to be involved in a shooting. She gets shot and gets an amazing ability to read minds which is quite cool. She is a gutsy woman and she decides to do something with her gift. But her new gift also brings her problems with her family, the local mob boss, and law enforcement. She can now read the minds of her children and husband and some of the things they are thinking about her are not too kind to say the least. The local mob boss also learns of her gift and wants to take advantage of it for his own organization. It does not help that her husband is none too happy with her new gift as it puts the family in danger from the likes of Joey the mob boss. While she has never been the smartest person in the room, Shelby is a feisty woman with the chutzpah to extricate herself from any situation. She is soon putting her gift to good use and sets up and investigations agency, where she works with law enforcement for the betterment of her society.

Colleen Helme’s “Carrots” is a novel that introduces Shelby a housewife in her mid-thirties. She has two kids, volunteers at church is a member of the local PTA and is as ordinary as anyone could be. She goes to the mart to get some carrots for the evening meal one evening only to run into a robbery. A man in front of her is shot and while everyone around her dives for cover, she remains frozen unable to move. She finds herself face to face with the robber who shoots at her, grazing her temple before he flees. Her whole life changes when she recovers to discover that she has the ability to read people’s minds. She can read the minds of her kids, the cops, her husband and practically everyone she in close proximity to. Things get more complicated when the robber comes after her since only she could identify him. The mob boss and his tough but kindly bodyguard save her life but then realizes that she has a unique gift for reading minds. She soon finds herself forced to read the minds of the mob boss’s associates and thugs for him. A lot of things could go wrong and they do go wrong making for one hell of a ride.

In “Fast Money” the second of the Shelby Nichols series, Shelby is out doing her favorite thing in the world, shopping when she stumbles on an exquisite pair of boots. Checking her bank balance before she buys them, she finds that she has five million dollars. She correctly makes a guess that the money was deposited in her account by Uncle Joey Manetto the mafia boss. Trying to return the money his assistant informs her that the man is in Mexico chasing down a lead on some missing money, a former client and his missing niece. In the meantime, the police need her skills in helping track down some artwork that went missing from the town’s gallery. As she heads to court, she notices that some random man may be planning a crime. The man is named Mercer and he is an assassin with twenty-seven successful hits, yet he had never been questioned or even suspected of any of them until Shelby. Now that he has been identified, he wants to kill Shelby before she can destroy him. Things get even more complex for the heroine who then receives calls from the Cartel and a visit from the CIA. Shelby may have to get help if she is to unravel the mysteries thrust upon her in such quick succession.

Colleen Helme’s “Lie or Die” is one of her most popular novels. Shelby has moved on from working from the mob and has set up shop as a consultant. Her first job is for a bank that wants to recover some money that was taken in a bank robbery. Unfortunately, they had first hired a man named Robert Felt who is unwilling to let Shelby do her work as he may lose his finder’s fee and his reputation if she takes over. In the meantime, Uncle Joey the crime boss is back and wants Shelby to help him find someone trustworthy enough in his organization to deputize him. Joey’s operations are threatened since his accountant’s company may lose a huge case that is being prosecuted by Chris, Shelby’s husband. Chris had the case assigned to him when one of the former attorneys had been the victim of a vicious attack and now Shelby is justifiably worried about the safety of her husband. It would seem that someone wants Joey in prison so bad and it will require Shelby to put all her talents to work to ensure he remains a free man.

One Response to “Colleen Helme”

1. Ginger: 2 years ago

   I have read the whole Shelby Nichols series and absolutely LOVED them. I can’t wait until the next book comes out!!!!!!

   Reply