Connie Blair Books In Order

Publication Order of Connie Blair Mystery Books

Connie Blair by Betsy Allen
Author Betsy Allen writes the “Connie Blair” series of mystery novels for adolescent girls. The series began publication in the year 1948, when “The Clue in Blue was released. The series ended after twelve novels in the year 1958 when “The Mystery of the Ruby Queens” was released. Each of the titles of the books has a color somewhere in the title.

Connie Blair, a teenager, is a model in Philadelphia at an exclusive department store. She takes a job at an advertising firm as a secretary, and works her way to a more important post.

Fans of the series have argued the books are in fact pro-feminist. This in the face of criticism of those who say the books are sexist. Connie encounters quite a few women who excel at jobs that were thought to be more suited for men at the time like the head of an advertising agency and a detective. Connie herself finds that she wants a career and does not feel the urge to have a steady boyfriend or get married to a man.

“The Clue in Blue” is the first novel in the “Connie Blair” series, which was released in the year 1948. Connie Blair takes a job as a temp modeling rather glamorous clothing at Campion’s in Philadelphia, she gets caught up in a baffling mystery that take place behind the scenes of a great department store.

The whole thing starts with someone’s missing fur beret. Connie’s young aunt (a stylist for Campion’s) is very concerned. The hat is a Paris original and is fabulously pricey. What worries Aunt Bet more is that it is not the first article to go missing mysteriously and then turn up that much more mysteriously.

Connie is confronted with an unanswerable question after another. Who was the guy in the woman’s hat, that one Sunday afternoon in the empty store? Why was the little stock girl, Grace, sobbing in the models’ dressing room? The most important question is which unknown enemy is attempting to throw suspicion off onto Aunt Bet? Connie is determined to catch the culprit, and enlists the young display guy Larry Stewart’s help. She finally confronts a much more ruthless foe than she ever imagined in her craziest speculating.

Connie is a self-sufficient, independent, and teenage sleuth. She seems to be much stronger than the girls in today’s teen novels, and some find her a refreshing change of pace as a result of this. The descriptions of what life was like during this bygone age is charming.

“The Riddle in Red” is the second novel in the “Connie Blair” series, which was released in the year 1948. A high-powered advertising agency’s reception desk is a great place to see every little thing that happens, as Connie quickly finds out. She is not at Reid and Renshaw’s all that long before she senses that there are some big doings going on.

“Cosmetics by Cleo”, which is the biggest account Reid and Renshaw has, is close to rolling out their revolutionary product that is made from a secret formula they have closely guarded. Everybody who works at the agency is keyed up to a high pitch as the big campaign is finally rolled out.

Connie gets caught up in all the excitement, right when Cleo herself walks into the reception room. Quickly mysterious developments threaten both the success of the campaign and Cleo Marville. Cleo, along with the secret formula, goes missing. Connie’s ingenuity and intelligence will be able to rise up to the challenge of all the unanswerable questions she has.

This book is just as good as the previous book, and for some readers, it has always been their favorite of the entire series.

“Puzzle in Purple” is the third novel in the “Connie Blair” series, which was released in the year 1948. Connie Blair goes off to art school while she gets into an exhilarating new world where mystery and glamour mingle with each other. Connie expects she will meet some colorful and unusual personalities, which is an expectation that winds up being met. She never bargained for a skeleton named Adam, who shows up wearing a purple cloak at the midwinter dress ball. He leaves his signature up on the ceiling.

Tension mounts from then on in the old Philadelphia mansion where the art school is housed. Who is behind the debacle at the ball? Could it have been Eric Payson, the sensitive and shy young painter whose mural was the sole painting not to be defaced? Fritz Bachman, sardonic and sharp faced and is determined to win the Fairchild Prize by foul or fair means? Or Roby Woodward, an irresistable dilettante who detests Eric for his abilities?

After sensing the catastrophe that makes the episode at the ball seem like nothing, Connie tries to put the pieces of the mystery back together.

Betsy Allen does a great job of writing for kids, as she doesn’t dumb things down for them. It is simply great to get another glimpse inside Connie’s very interesting life and see her solve another mystery.

“The Secret of Black Cat Gulch” is the fourth novel in the “Connie Blair” series, which was released in the year 1948. Connie Blair gets a wire, in which adventure rings in every single syllable. The wire comes from the advertising agency while she is on vacation in Medowbrook. Sagebrush, Indians, and adobe. All the things that Connie has ever heard about the state of New Mexico spins around in her much delighted head.

On the journey down Georgia and Connie make friends with an enthusiastic young archaeologist named Jeff Chandler. He is on the hunt for a mysterious tiny man missing a finger and a limp. He may hold the link to some untold historical treasure. Connie jumps in with both feet into Jeff’s hunt, and uncovers a modern mystery in ancient Taos. Why does the ugly, but intriguing innkeeper, Dolly Morgan, behave so oddly? And who is attempting to keep Jeff and Connie from going into the abandoned mine? And why?