From Cherry Ames authors Helen Wells and Julie Tatham also came the Vicki Barr series, in which young Vicki--blond, blue-eyed, and petite--flies away from her family home (called The Castle) in Fairview, Illinois, to join Federal Airlines as a flight stewardess, with her mother's rather strange admonition echoing in her ears: "Keep away from the propellers and don't eat hamburgers" (Silver Wings for Vicki, p. 33).

Vicki regularly encounters mysteries and dangers through her career in the skies, and eventually she even learns to pilot a small plane in her spare time. Like her fellow Illinoisian Cherry Ames, Vicki shares an apartment in New York City with several coworkers.

Silver Wings for Vicki, by Helen Wells, 1947
Vicki trains to become a Federal Airlines stewardess, rents a New York City apartment with five other stewardesses, attracts the interest of handsome young copilot Dean Fletcher and handsome young newspaperman Pete Carmody, and becomes suspicious of a series of passengers carrying ostrich-leather briefcases on her flights between New York City and Memphis.

Vicki Finds the Answer, by Helen Wells, 1947
When Vicki discovers a tearful runaway on her flight from Norfolk, Virginia, her instinctive desire to do what she can to help the young girl's impractical family plunges her into a dangerous investigation of nefarious doings in the lumber business.

The Hidden Valley Mystery, by Helen Wells, 1948
Federal Airlines awards Vicki a choice assignment in Mexico, where she, her zany cousin, and copilot Dean Fletcher visit an isolated village that may be somehow connected with a menacing gang of banditos.

In the last Cherry Ames book she wrote (Country Doctor's Nurse), Julie Tatham made Cherry's old flame Wade Cooper a pilot for Federal Airlines--the same airline for which Vicki toiled as a flight stewardess--and even put him on the Mexico run.

The Secret of Magnolia Manor, by Helen Wells, 1948
In New Orleans, Vicki suspects that a young girl's strict, old-fashioned guardian is searching the former family mansion to find and destroy an old will that disinherits him.

The Clue of the Broken Blossom, by Julie Tatham, 1950
Mystery follows Vicki on her week-long vacation in Hawaii, where an unusual lei of toxic flowers provides a clue to the kidnapping of a young heiress.

Behind the White Veil, by Julie Tatham, 1951
Stranded in an Alaskan valley hidden from view by a veil of mist, Vicki and the other passengers from a small disabled plane, who are not all what they seem, search for secret caches of furs and jewels--and for a way out.

The Mystery at Hartwood House, by Julie Tatham, 1952
While helping screen prospective stewardesses at a Chicago hotel, Vicki follows a trail of stolen perfume to solve a mystery involving an applicant claiming amnesia and a superstitious actress preparing for an opening night.

Though credited to Helen Wells, the fourth book in the series, The Secret of Magnolia Manor, was actually written by Julie Tatham.

Peril over the Airport, by Helen Wells, 1953
Vicki's stewardess career takes a backseat as she trains for a private pilot's license at a small hometown airfield facing stiff competition from a new airport and possible sabotage by a mysteriously tattooed mechanic. This is an odd book in which Vicki's career is repeatedly belittled by both the good guys and the bad guys, and Vicki herself thinks, "Riding in commercial air liners felt flat compared to the thrill of learning to master a small plane" (p. 157).

The Mystery of the Vanishing Lady, by Helen Wells, 1954
Vicki agrees to fly a demanding elderly woman out of town when a flood closes the roads, but during an unscheduled stop, the woman disappears, leaving behind the bankbook of a man police think was taken hostage in a daring bank robbery.

The Search for the Missing Twin, by Helen Wells, 1954
A child's dress in a clothing donation that Vicki delivers to disaster victims sets her on a painstaking quest to reunite twin girls who were separated in a horrible shipwreck fifteen years earlier.

The Ghost at the Waterfall, by Helen Wells, 1956
Vicki offers to fly a friend to Canada on a mission of mercy, but when they make an emergency fuel stop, the two frightened girls stumble on a cutthroat gang's secluded cabin near a waterfall--which is apparently haunted by a ghostly Indian maiden.

The Clue of the Gold Coin, by Helen Wells, 1958
Assigned to the New York-Tampa run, Vicki traces the baffling theft of a shipment of priceless gold coins flown to Tampa for a gala pirate festival, and tries to assist a troubled older man.

The last Vicki Barr book The Brass Idol Mystery, was actually written by pulp writer and magician Walter Gibson, best known for his hundreds of stories about the Shadow.

The Silver Ring Mystery, by Helen Wells, 1960
Vicki agrees to help an elderly couple trace their granddaughter, whose mother they disowned after she married against their wishes, and attempts to prevent a shady plot to substitute an impostor for the missing woman.

The Clue of the Carved Ruby, by Helen Wells, 1961
Vicki leaves Federal Airlines for Worldwide, an international carrier, and becomes embroiled with jewel thieves in New York and Paris when a mysterious locker key is mistakenly delivered to her hotel room.

The Mystery of Flight 908, by Helen Wells, 1962
Vicki takes a leave of absence from Worldwide while her mother is convalescing at The Castle, and fills in briefly for Federal on the airline's New York-Miami run. It's an enjoyable assignment--until Vicki's flight out of Miami is abruptly hijacked to an island off the coast of South America.

The Brass Idol Mystery, by Helen Wells, 1964
Back with Worldwide, Vicki buys a brass idol named Lakshmi for her friend Jack while on a layover in India--but the apparently innocuous souvenir arouses the intense interest of an assortment of strange people, including a publicity-seeking woman, a seemingly respectable businessman, and a thief wearing a turban.

Send email.