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Book review: 'Hidden Deception' keeps mind-reading heroine busy
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"Hidden Deception" is by Colleen Helme. - photo by Sharon Haddock
"HIDDEN DECEPTION: A Shelby Nichols Adventure," by Colleen Helme, $12.99, 294 pages (f)

"Hidden Deception" by Colleen Helme is the ninth book in the series about Shelby Nichols, who is just back from a harrowing assignment in Paris where she narrowly escaped with her life.

She's barely had time to catch her breath when she's caught up in multiple mystery cases that test her talents at reading minds, her skills at investigation and her organizational abilities as she juggles her marriage, her job for mobster Uncle Joey and her teenage children as they head back to school.

These mysteries include figuring out where the strange crying is coming from in the new, gorgeous house she and her husband are looking to buy, and she has to determine why her friend's jeweler is overly anxious when her friend goes looking for an engagement ring. On top of this, Nichols is supposed to help Uncle Joey find out who is double-crossing him, and she has to keep up with a cold-case mystery the police department wants her to resolve.

But a life crammed full of intrigue and danger is nothing new for the woman who has been able to read minds since she was grazed by a bullet as she shopped for carrots a while back.

Nichols also tends to flirt with danger as she enjoys depending on the sexy bodyguard who keeps showing up at the right moment to save her. (She does remain loyal to her husband throughout.) In this book, Nichol's husband is also made a partner in his law firm, but it's questionable as to whether the new exotic assistant will make a play for Nichol's good-looking husband who is getting a little frustrated with his wife's adventurous life.

The Shelby Nichols adventures are clean with no foul language and no sex other than the implied sex between the married Nichols.