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HELEN MEEKER

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Full Name: Helen Meeker
Series Name: In The President's Service
Nationality: American
Organization: Presidential Agent
Occupation Agent

Creator: Ace Collins
Time Span: 2013 - 2024

ABOUT THE SERIES

Helen Meeker is an agent for the American President.

She is part of a team specifically created for that purpose by the man himself, the 32nd Chief Executive, Franklin Roosevelt. The time frame for the initial activities of Meeker and her group is the Early Spring of 1942, a few months after the U.S. was pulled officially into the Second World War. The location for our initial meeting of Meeker is just outside the Oval Office as she awaited a word with Roosevelt. Sitting a bit impatiently for her meeting, Meeker realizes that "though she'd been in [there] a hundred times and every facet of it was deeply imprinted in her mind, there was still something intimidating about crossing [the] threshold". The appointment there was unusual in that while he reminds her he has "called on you to do a job for me" over the years, this was the first time she had requesting a confab.

We learn during that meeting that Meeker's relationship with Roosevelt is a very long one, reaching back to when she was very little and called him 'Uncle Franklin' during the numerous times their families got together. When she reached adulthood, her intelligence, insight, instinct, and even insolance were qualities that he was wise enough to make use of. We also learn that she has already helped the nascent OSS on more than one occasion and her fulltime assistance had been requested by them but refused by Roosevelt as he had too much need for her back in the States.

Meeker is described as being a quite attractive, blue-eyed, auburn-haired woman who is completed by the Chief Executive when he told her she was "Wonder Woman, Nancy Drew, and Lana Turner all wrapped together. You're strong, tough, beautiful, and deadly." Roosevelt has a protective attitude towards her and expresses his concern whenever he gives her an assignment he worries will be dangerous (they all are that way) but he does give her those missions nonetheless. For her part, Meeker is frequently thinking of the men her age who were being shipped to the Far East and to Europe to likely did in combat and she is determined to do her part in the war effort. She is independent-minded and loves to get to where she needs to go in her much loved yellow 1937 Packard sedan.

During her many adventures, all of which take place in a very short period of time and often end on a cliffhanger, she will have two different partners. The first will be Henry Reese, an FBI agent with an impressive skill at code-breaking as well as having a tenacity almost at Meeker's level as well as being someone very dear to Meeker. After a while, when Reese leaves for London and the troubles there and Meeker is moved to Chicago to perform more services for Roosevelt under the guise of a private detective agency called Meeker Investigations, she will be teamed up with Teresa Bryant, someone she distrusts initially but who will prove to be a very good partner and friend. In both partnerships she will acquire a couple more interesting people to become part of her 'team', one especially interesting fellow being a man with the unusual name of Napoleon Lancelot.

Good Lines:
- When chided by Roosevelt that curiosity such as hers had killed many a cat, she retorts, "I know, but it's why I'm good at what I do".

BOOKS

Number of Books:20
First Appearance:2013
Last Appearance:2024

0 The Yellow Packard The Yellow Packard
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2018

A Prequel. "The Case That Introduced Helen Meeker and the In the President’s Service series.
In the midst of the Great Depression, draftsman George Hall longs to bring his baby girl, Rose, home from the hospital in style. So, he buys a barely used Packard sedan from the estate of spinster Abigale Watling despite rumors the car is nothing but bad luck. At first, the Packard brings the Halls an unexpected boon … but the unthinkable follows when Rose is kidnapped, and the car stolen.
Helen Meeker—struggling to prove herself in the male-dominated ranks of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI—takes the case and vows to bring justice to the Halls. Tracking down the kidnapper means tracking down the Packard, and Helen soon finds herself steered into intrigue and the line of fire of the country’s most sought-after public enemy. Until clues lead to a dead end."
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1 A Date With Death A Date With Death
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2013

03/04/1942 - 03/16/1942: "Helen Meeker has less than thirty days to stop the execution of an innocent pastor who has unbelievably confessed to being a Nazi spy. While on a case that has dynamic implications to uncovering an espionage ring operating on American and British soil, Helen defuses a hostage crisis in a bank robbery gone wrong, unearths an explosive coffin, and is introduced to a dead English hero who seems very much alive. The fate of an innocent girl and the world’s two most dynamic leaders depend upon Helen’s connecting cases before Wilbur Shellmeyer faces a firing squad, and Churchill and Roosevelt meet for a secret conference in upstate New York."
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2 The Dark Pool The Dark Pool
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2013

03/16/1942 - 03/21/1942. "Helen Meeker is up against impossible odds as she races against time to rescue both her sister and her partner. To further complicate matters, however, behind-the-scenes experiments threaten the very survival of Western civilization.
From the halls of the White House to the hidden laboratory of a diabolical scientist to the foreign fields of battle, a pervading evil moves ever closer to the successful overthrow of all that is good. Will Helen Meeker be able to stem the tide…or will she be swept away in its dark undercurrent?"
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3 Blood Brother Blood Brother
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2013

03/21/1942 - 03/28/1942. "After an assassin’s bullet stops Helen Meeker dead in tracks her friends must find the man who fired the shot. From the streets of Washington D.C. to the stockyards in Chicago with a side trip to the heart of Texas, danger and intrigue dog a secret government team as Helen hovers between life and death. Will an enemy’s blood offer a second chance at life and the key to finding out what a mysterious tall man really wants?"
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4 Fatal Addiction Fatal Addiction
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2013

03/29/1942 - 04/09/1942. "Helen Meeker has impulsively hopped onto a DC-2, en route to Nazi Germany, in a seemingly foolhardy attempt to save her friend, Henry Reese. Rebecca Bobbs and the rest of the team watch in horrified resignation, unable to stop the inevitable. Meanwhile, Alistar Fistar discovers that without the injections that have given him super-human powers, he will soon die. And he won’t be the only one, as others—much more innocent than Fistar—are sucked into the fatal addiction. Is there any way for the remaining team members to stop the diabolical plot that could enslave an entire civilization—before it’s too late?"
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5 The Devil's Eyes The Devil's Eyes
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2014

04/09/1942 - 04/24/1942. "The Devil’s Eyes picks up where Fatal Addiction left off, with singer Grace Lupino charming her way into men’s hearts while plunging a knife in the back of anyone who gets in her way. While Helen Meeker and her team, supposedly dead, hide in the shadows, trying to discover the identity of the mole in the White House as well as uncover the truth of who is behind the evil that snuffs out lives and steals souls without a twinge of conscience, some of the most important and valued documents in American history become a pawn between life and death."
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6 The Dead Can Talk The Dead Can Talk
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2015

04/25/1942 - 05/14/1942. "Helen Meeker persuades the president to send her and two other agents behind enemy lines in Germany in a desperate attempt to obtain needed information for the Allies. In a life-and-death chase to escape the Nazis that are hot on their trail, one of the agents is shot and left for dead, but not before Nazi plans are smuggled out with the two remaining agents. Meanwhile, back in the States, Alistar Fister believes he has at last discovered the elusive Fountain of Youth—and he is willing to kill anyone who tries to stop him from drinking it."
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7 Bottled Madness Bottled Madness
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2015

05/15/1942 - 06/09/1942. "From explorers to politicians to people of all races and cultures, the legend of the Fountain of Youth has called to anxious hearts through the ages. World War II was no exception, and one of the cruelest men of that era or any other, Adolf Hitler, was willing to pay exorbitant amounts to get his hands on the supposedly magical elixir. With lives hanging in the balance, Helen Meeker and her team, believed by many to be dead but who are in fact very much alive—at least for the time being—must race against time to protect themselves and others against the curse that accompanies the Fountain of Youth legend."
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8 Shadows In The Moonlight Shadows In The Moonlight
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2015

06/15/1942 - 06/27/1942. "Helen Meeker still leads the special team, appointed by the President himself, and the team must race against time to rescue four disabled young people who have been kidnapped by criminals who have sold out to the highest bidder—in this case, Adolph Hitler. Will Meeker and her associates succeed in finding the kidnap victims before Hitler decides they are no longer of use to him?"
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9 Evilution Evilution
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2016

06/27/1942 - 07/07/1942. "Last we saw Helen Meeker, she was in a great explosion in Carfono’s office—can a “ghost” be killed again? The team is still racing against time to rescue the four disabled young friends of the President who have been kidnapped by criminals in league with Adolph Hitler. On the European front, Reese and Holsclaw are attempting to get to England to search for the traitor Armstrong—to find out what he knows that Hitler will go to such lengths to get. The team has their work cut out for him—or will one or more of them be cut out?"
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10 Uneasy Alliance Uneasy Alliance
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2016

07/07/1942 - 07/22/1942. "Henry Reese is underwater—literally. He’s being given a ride to Mexico in a German submarine still playing the role of Nigel Armstrong, the Brit who was a traitor to his country in exchange for a trunk full of loot. During the ride, he forms an uneasy friendship with Commander Fritz Klein, the Sea Shark. In their conversations he learns a very disturbing fact about the German war effort and what Hitler’s up to now. In the meantime, Helen Meeker and her crew await the arrival of a new team member assigned by the President—a British woman who was to accompany them on a yet to be disclosed mission."
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11 The 13th Floor The 13th Floor
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2016

07/22/1942 - 08/07/1942. "A newspaper leaks word that Helen is alive and her world is turned upside. Separated from her team, she joins forces with a former enemy and pulls back the cover on shady alliances in the nation’s capitol as she fights to save the president’s reputation and salvage her value to the American war effort. The case hinges on the seemingly senseless murder of someone from the past and a string of explosions that not only threaten the war effort, but also the emergence of women in the workforce. Meanwhile, in Mexico, Helen’s team fights new foes to rescue someone long thought dead and save a German U-boat commander who has a secret too ghastly to believe."
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12 The White Rose The White Rose
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2016

07/10/1942 - 09/25/1942. "Helen Meeker has been moved Chicago against her will and given a partner she does not trust. The pair face two disparate cases. The first requires saving an innocent man from execution and the second sees Helen employ a bizarre trap to bring Fredrick Bauer out of hiding. In this action/adventure/whodunit, Helen and her new partner, Teresa Bryant, form an uneasy alliance as they face assassination attempts, a baffling mystery concerning a bank robbery and the murder of a guard, and the challenge of decoding a book containing information the Nazis can’t afford to have to come to light."
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13 The Cat's Eye The Cat's Eye
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2017

09/28/1942 - 10/25/1942. "Helen Meeker is immersed in a perverse game where lives are cheap, faith is in short supply, death is a constant companion and the action never stops. A kidnapped Norwegian child, a murdered Japanese-American woman, and a secret Nazi project hidden inside a mountain build into a breathless adventure that literally spans the globe."
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14 The Red Suit Case The Red Suit Case
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2017

11/23/1942 - 12/25/1942. "Helen Meeker has traveled the globe fighting the world's most evil forces, but a small boy has given her a seemingly impossible case. The child believes the same people who killed his father on the Astoria during the first summer of World War II have also murdered Santa Claus. How will Meeker prove to Walter Glasglow that the jolly elf is still alive?"
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15 Set for Danger Set for Danger
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2018

12/26/1942 - 02/04/1943. "Helen Meeker and her team are on the trail of the Nazi’s top spy, under attack by the forces of Imperial Japan, and asked to solve the attempted murder of one of the world’s biggest movie stars. From Hollywood sound stages to a deserted island to a Colorado ghost town to a mental hospital, the action intensifies with each turn of the page. As Meeker, Bryant, and Lancelot each work different angles, their cases converge in the climatic fashion of a motion picture blockbuster."
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16 The Trojan Horse The Trojan Horse
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2020

02/14/1943 - 03/14/1943. "When seven mummified women are found on an Army training ground, Helen Meeker and her team are immersed into a perplexing and horrifying mystery. But that’s just the beginning! When more bodies are discovered, Teresa Bryant’s past offers a clue as to who the victims are, but it will take the skills of Napoleon Lancelot to uncover the reason for their deaths. At the same time, Nazi SS units are being smuggled into the United States to conduct terrorist operations while their leader, aided by a woman who claims to have no soul, is under orders to find and assassinate Helen Meeker."

17 The Wolf Pack The Wolf Pack
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2020

03/14/1943 - 05/17/1943. "Helen Meeker’s team is attempting to stop a Nazi terrorist squad while also answering the question of who is behind the murder of more than forty young women. With Becca Bobbs and Clay Barnes joining Helen, Napoleon Lancelot, and Teresa Bryant to track down an invisible foe known only as the Wolf, this fast-paced adventure goes from Texas, to New York, to Germany, and to Washington before concluding on an island lost in fog and dripping with death."
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18 Black or White Black or White
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2021

08/18/1943 - 09/22/1943. "Helen Meeker faces a confounding mystery that includes a congressman, a mobster, and the German high command. Triggered by a bank robbery, a suicide, and a kidnapping, Meeker’s team is put on high alert and drawn into intense action where one of them is gravely injured. In Washington, St. Louis, Chicago, and up and down the Atlantic coast, they are saddled with the seemingly impossible tasks of protecting key government secrets and saving the lives of two innocent children."
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19 Time Walker Time Walker
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2024

Late 1943. "Helen Meeker’s team reunites to uncover the reason why a man refuses the Medal of Honor he deserves. Unraveling this mystery takes Meeker and her team on a life and death chase. Their original, seemingly simple case quickly explodes into a complex adventure where they must find a man called Horse, uncover why Hitler hired a mobster to contribute to the Nazi cause, face a legendary hit man who wants to add them to his list of victims, and perhaps uncover a treasure once sought by the Spanish Conquistadors."
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20 Kryptonite Kryptonite
Written by Ace Collins
Copyright: 2024

Early 1944. "A senator’s suicide attempt draws Helen Meeker and her associates into a mystery, taking the team from coast to coast digging for clues and dodging death on roads that seem to lead nowhere. The keys to this whodunit include a conman who’s trying to land the ultimate paycheck, a frightening revival of the Black Legion, a car wreck that is far more than it seems, a deserted home wired to explode, a life and death chase along an Illinois highway, and a heroic sailor blinded in battle. As always, Meeker locks horns with J. Edger Hoover and a host of others who keep underestimating the woman’s intelligence and determination."
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MY COMMENTS

I have no idea who the prototype of Helen Meeker might be, who gave the author, Ace Collins, the idea for her, but I think if she existed and did not come out whole cloth from his mind, she must have been fascinating. There is a whole lot of Agent Carter in Meeker, complete with the occasional jerk male trying to keep the little lady back home where she belongs. Bull-dookey! Meeker belongs right where Roosevelt sends her and it is a blast to watch her get into considerable trouble and find her own way out of it.

I especially liked the way that one adventure leads right into the next one. The fact that the author/publisher even labels each of these linerar tales as 'episodes' shows this is totally planned. I would even put the first set of stories, where she is working with Agent Reese as Season One and the tales in Chicago with Bryant as Season Two.

GRADE

My Grade: A-

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