Margaret Burnham

Thrills! Chills! Spills! And hooray for Project Gutenberg! Thanks to their free downloads I was able to use my Android phone to read this first book in the AVIATOR GIRLS series, which was published way back in the early 1900s. My sister stumbled across the title when she was helping me find the novel CECELIA by Fanny Burney, a book that gave Jane Austen’s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE its name. The AVIATOR GIRLS stars two cheerful, capable, intrepid brother/sister pairs who make and fly their own airplanes, and because it features independent girls who solve mysteries it reads like it could have been an inspiration for NANCY DREW or TRIXIE BELDEN. Peggy and Roy live with their aunt and are fixing up the Golden Butterfly, a plane they hope will win them the $5,000 they need to pay off their aunt’s mortgage so they won’t lose their home. They are helped by their wealthier friends, siblings Jess and Jimsy, who also supply one of the books mysteries—someone stole their mother’s jewels while Jess and Roy were knocked out after a suspicious car accident! Other characters include a lonely hermit with a sad secret, a working girl with a good heart, a rich entrepreneur with a long lost brother, and of course a jealous villain with the worst of motives.… (mer)