Grave Duty

A Shelby Nichols Adventure

By: Colleen Helme

Narrated by: Wendy Tremont King

Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

Duty to a mob boss, a rose on a grave, and a cry for vengeance all combine to put Shelby in grave danger.

After the turmoil of the last few weeks, Shelby is hoping for a little less excitement and drama in her life, but her duty to a mob boss, the police, and her family, make that nearly impossible. Soon, the biggest danger she faces comes from an unexpected source, and she finds that some coincidences are part of a bigger scheme that could lead her to an early grave. Let's hope she can dig her way out, or this adventure might be the last chapter in the life of Shelby Nichols.

USA Today and Wall Street Journal best-selling author Colleen Helme offers a clever mix of mystery, laugh-out-loud humor, and pause-resistant adventure in the highly acclaimed Shelby Nichols Adventure Series.

Perfect for fans of Jana DeLeon, Elizabeth Hunter, Eve Langlais, Shannon Mayer, and KF Breene.

©2023 Colleen Helme (P)2023 Colleen Helme

Critic reviews

"I cannot get enough from this incredible author! I have followed Shelby from Carrots to this latest story and have loved every one. I couldn't say which I have liked and enjoyed more; Colleen is an incredibly talented person and her stories tell us why. This collection of stories starring Shelby Nichols is beyond good, and I highly recommend it." (Christina Brett, author)

“Colleen Helme is one of the greatest authors working independently today." (Matthew LeDrew, best-selling author of Infinity)

just love the series

I may have been slightly impartial about my rateing. I rated not for the latest book but also for the consistency in 17 adventures and the development of the characters over time. It is hard to keep one's self motivated to over this long of a period without getting stale.

I alos love the voice of WTK as Shelby...

Great book

Another great installment of Shelby's exciting, complicated life. I enjoyed every twist in the plot.

Always a good read,

Story is always good, i just discovered the Shelby’s series. So read them back to back, sometimes the remembrance is not needed, that said can hardly wait for the next adventure: Think I will go check out her other series 😀

Wonderful book!

Still reeling form the events of the last book, Shelby is struggling to get excited about anything. Duty, however, calls. A client wants her to follow an ex-convict so that they can kill them. Manetto is being targeted by someone who is turning people in his organization against him, hacking his accounts, and harassing his businesses. Detective Harris has been tasked with solving a cold case regarding a gas station who was murdered. As Shelby looks into the different cases, they all start linking and interfering with each other, causing her to have to lie to Detective Harris. Can Shelby fix things with Detective Harris, solve Manetto’s problem, solve a cold case, and keep the deaths, including her own, from happening?

Narrator, Wendy Tremont King’s unique intonations and voices help listeners to easily distinguish characters. Pacing is well done and complements the author’s writing style and pacing. The plot is well-developed, engaging, and humorous. Characters are likable, flawed, and draw the reader into Shelby’s world. World building continues to be masterfully done and mixes the story’s different elements together well. Listeners who like mysteries, other Shelby Nichol novels, humor, and mafia fiction will want to pick this one up.

I was thrilled when I saw this as a new release!

I should probably start this review by saying that I absolutely ADORE this series. I have been reading each and every one of the 17 books for years, ever since I found that first book about "carrots" several years ago. I love these characters - I love the zaniness of Shelby, I love Chris and her children, I ADORE Dimples, I ENJOY each and every time Ramos is on the page, and I've even come to like Uncle Joey.

So why am I saying all of this? Well, because for the first time, I had a couple of problems with the direction that I could feel this book moving into. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, this has actually been happening a bit more often, changes in certain behavior that has been slowly inserted into certain situations and books. I think it was just more blatant and more obvious - or maybe I just caught it more- in this book.

For example, the crush that Shelby has on Ramos. That is nothing new and has been going on since the very beginning of their friendship. One of the reasons that it works (with her being a happily married woman) is because she has not been willing to cross any lines. The two of them can flirt confident in the fact that they both know nothing is going to come of it. I think Ramos gets off seeing if he can get a rise out of Shelby and I think Shelby enjoys being able to have a VERY good looking man compliment her and making her feel "attractive" or "sexy". It is usually just always in good fun. I felt like this time (without going into spoilers, I'm just going to talk in generalities) that not only did they step on the line, they took that first step in crossing it.

Trust me, I'm not a prude. I think Ramos is incredibly ...well, EVERYTHING. Sexy, confident, good looking, and more than anything, AWARE of all of this. Shelby, on the other hand, is a bit naive and has definitely been out of the game for a while since she has been married for close to 20 years.

At the beginning of the series, I WANTED the two of them to get together. In fact I REALLY wanted that to happen. But somehow, as we got into more and more of the series, we got to meet Chris and got to see what an amazing guy he is. There is also her family to consider. She has two teenage children who are not blind. I know that Shelby has the ability to do whatever she wants, but if she eventually chooses to go in that direction, it will completely blow up a pretty awesome family. And THAT would be doubly complicated now that Chris is Uncle Joey's lawyer and the two families have really began to merge as they get closer and closer. So, yes, it scared me that Shelby let things go as far as she did. Yes, I know, it wasn't much, but that's how these things start. Okay...end rant.

The other thing that was odd about this book was that at times, Shelby's character almost felt like a different person. I can understand having an onset of PTSD or anxiety due to all of the close calls she has been having lately, Heck, I would be more surprised if she DIDN'T have lingering effects from all the recent traumas. But instead, she began to have dark/darker thoughts, thoughts that she has never had in the past regarding whether or not "so and so" would be better off dead (and not naturally). Questioning if Ramos or Uncle Joey, or Savage should "take care of" "XXX" to get them out of their hair. That is not the Shelby we have come to know.

And maybe it's just me, but she also had moments of well, of self-centeredness and even some arrogance with certain actions in the police station (not to mention her actions in a certain situation where she left the scene of a crime then downright LIED to Dimples, the ONE man who has had her back through thick and thin). THAT scenario had me in complete shock, because that completely went against everything that we have seen and come to expect from her in the past. I truly hope this is not a path that she is going to start going down because believe me, with her luck and awful lying skills, this might not be good for her (and her actions directly impact her family, Uncle Joey's business, Ramos AND Dimples) Okay, sorry, I THOUGHT I had been done with my rant.

This story line - to me- was not as strong as usual (heck, maybe that's why I noticed everything else). In fact, it was probably one of- if not THE weakest - criminal investigations that we've seen in a while. Somehow, in the end, EVERYTHING was tied in together, even though there really wasn't a good explanation of WHY they would be.

But, even with that being said, I loved following along as Shelby found herself in the middle of a bunch of different situations and yet she managed to juggle everything perfectly (well, maybe NOT perfectly) but managed to do what she does best....find a way out of the shenanigans that she almost always finds herself in :)

After 17 books and a couple of novellas, everyone is entitled to an off book and just the fact that we are almost on the 20th book before I felt like this might be one is a testament to the amazing writing that we consistently get from Ms. Helme.

If you are already a fan of this series, there is way too much fun in this book to pass up so go click the buy button. If this is not a series that you have started yet, go out and find book 1 -Carrots (Shelby Nichols, #1) - you will not be disappointed and actually might just find yourself laughing along, and sometimes even out loud. I can not tell you how many times I have been listening to one of her books on audio and only have one ear pod in my ear while I'm out doing something in public and then just burst out laughing before I could stop it...yep, I've definitely gotten several funny looks and just smiled. I can only imagine the thoughts that followed me after I walked out of the particular place.

Is it worth it?

Absolutely!

Great as always

This one made me laugh and cry. It’s always a fun read with a bit of suspense. Colleen Helme brings us a great story and Wendy Tremont King gives it a voice I can totally imagine Shelby sounding like. A great combination!

Another winner

Colleen Helme has written an excellent installment in her Shelby Nichols Adventures series. All the characters we’ve grown to know and love are present as well as a great mystery to try and solve.
Wendy Tremont King, as always, gave an outstanding performance as she breathed life into the storyline and gave distinct voices to all the characters.
I’m anxiously waiting for the next in series.

Great series!

I love this series! While I wait for the next book I’m going to go back and listen to the books all over again.

Love this series!

I was looking for a new series and ran across this. I have listened to every one of the books and can’t wait for the next one. The narrator is perfect!! What a gift to have found these books and this author. I feel like these characters are family!

Love Shelby’s adventures

Always love Shelby and friends!!!

I wanted to stay up all night listening to find out what happens!!

Looking forward to the next one…..