Mystery Women Authors

Elizabeth Peters

Biography

Barbara Mertz was born and raised in Illinois. She received her PhD. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago. She has served as a judge for the Edgar Awards given by the Mystery Writers of America. She writes under two pseudonyms - Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters.  Under the Peters name Mertz has created the series characters of Vicky Bliss, art historian; Jacqueline Kirby, librarian and Amelia Peabody, Victorian archeologist and adventurer.   Amelia Peabody , with her Egyptologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson and their precocious young son Ramses solve many mysteries in Victorian England and Egypt.

Who is Elizabeth Peters?  Click here to find out....

Photos of ElizabethPeters/Barbara Michaels/Barbara Mertz

Books

Amelia Peabody Mysteries (Egyptologist - Victorian England)

The Ape Who Guards the Balance  (10)

The Ape Who Guards the Balance begins in 1907 in England where Amelia is attending a suffragettes' rally outside the home of Mr. Geoffrey Romer of the House of Commons. It seems Romer is one of the few remaining private collectors of Egyptian antiquities, and a series of bizarre events at the protest soon embroil Amelia in grave personal danger. Suspecting that the Master Criminal, Sethos, is behind their problems, the Emerson Peabodys hasten to Egypt to continue their studies in the Valley of Kings where they soon acquire a papyrus of the Book of the Dead. As with past seasons, however, their archaeological expedition is interrupted. The murdered body of a woman is found in the Nile. Ramses, Radcliffe, and Amelia all have their theories as to the origin of the crime, but their own lives might soon be at stake if the cult of Thoth and their ancient book is, indeed, involved.

Published Avon Books 1998

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The Crocodile on the Sandbank (1)

Elizabeth Peter's unforgettable heroine Amelia Peabody makes her first appearance in this clever mystery. Amelia receives a rather large inheritance and decides to use it for travel. On her way through Rome to Egypt, she meets Evelyn Barton-Forbes, a young woman abandoned by her lover and left with no means of support. Amelia promptly takes Evelyn under her wing, insisting that the young lady accompany her to Egypt, where Amelia plans to indulge her passion for Egyptology. When Evelyn becomes the target of an aborted kidnapping and the focus of a series of suspicious accidents and mysterious visitations, Amelia becomes convinced of a plot to harm her young friend. Like any self-respecting sleuth, Amelia sets out to discover who is behind it all.

Published as reissue Mass Market Paperbacks 1992

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The Curse of the Pharaohs (2)

One of the best-loved of mystery writers weaves another tale of intrigue featuring Amelia Peabody and Radcliffe of Crocodile on the Sandbank. This time the willful and witty duo must catch a murderer at an excavation of an ancient Egyptian tomb.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1992 (Reissue)

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The Mummy Case (3)

Emerson, Amelia Peabody's archaeologist husband, is on a dig where nothing seems worthy of interest, until a sinister murder suspect turns up at the site. Amelia can't resist following his trail, but danger mounts when she and Emerson look for answers in an ancient tomb that nearly becomes their grave. 

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1995 (Reissue)

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Lion in the Valley (4)

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1990

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The Deeds of the Disturber (5)

Victorian Egyptologist Amelia Peabody is back for more exotic suspense when a night watchman at the British Museum is found dead in the shadow of a rare 19th-Dynasty mummy case. Skeptical of an ancient curse, Amelia is hot on the trail of the real killer.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1989

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The Last Camel Died at Noon (6)

In the Sudan to search for Viscount Blacktower's son and his new bride, Egyptologist Amelia Peabody, her husband Emerson, and their son, Ramses, become caught in web of treachery, and their survival depends on Amelia's sleuthing skills.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1994

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The Snake the Crocodile and the Dog (7)

The delightful seventh adventure for popular heroine Amelia Peabody. The 19th-century Egyptologist and her dashing husband, Emerson, return to Amarna, where they first fell in love. When Emerson is kidnapped, Amelia must rescue her husband, find the culprit, and save her marriage.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1994

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The Hippopotamus Pool (8)

Amelia, her husband Emerson, their 13-year-old son Ramses, and their beautiful ward Nefret return to Egypt for an exciting excavation. The dig is at an undisturbed Royal Tomb, a true find--and an irresistible temptation for art thieves, jealous colleagues, looters, the press, and the countless evil-doers. As Ramses and Nefret rub elbows with thieves and thugs, Amelia finds herself faced with a surprising new villain who is every bit as clever and resourceful as the intrepid Amelia herself.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1997

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Seeing a Large Cat (9)

To dream of a large cat is a sign of good luck according to Egyptian lore. But when famed archeologist Amelia Peabody dreams of a cat, she wonders if the Egyptians didn’t get it backwards. The year is 1903 and Peabody is back in Cairo preparing for another dig with her handsome and irascible husband Emerson and their formidable son Ramses, who has grown into that most dreadful of creatures – a teenager.

Trouble first presents itself in the form of Confederate Colonel Bellingham, who is convinced that his precocious daughter is in mortal danger. The plot thickens when Emerson receives an anonymous note telling him to stay away from tomb Twenty-A. Ignoring this warning, the group discovers the mummified remains not of an ancient Pharaoh but of Col. Bellingham’s wife, thought to have run off with a lover years earlier. When an examination of the corpse reveals foul play, Bellingham’s concern for his
daughter suddenly seems warranted. And who better to protect her than Ramses?

Meanwhile, an old friend has come under the spell of a disreputable psychic and is convinced that the spirit of an ancient Egyptian princess is calling him to her tomb. Between exposing fraudulent seers, matchmaking, and dodging the bullets of Mrs. Bellingham’s killer, Amelia may never find time to continue her archeological investigations.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1998

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Vicky Bliss Mysteries Art Historian - Munich, Germany

Borrower of the Night (1)

When Vicky and Tony travel to Schloss Drachenstein in Germany, searching for a lost work of art by the sculptor Riemenschneider, they become embroiled in the past and the lives of the Drachensteins, those long-gone, and those still alive-and-well. (Historical facts blended with fictional are a specialty of Peters'. Her novels are educational as well as entertaining!) As each determines to be the first to find the lost shrine, they encounter all sorts of dangers. There is as much humour as there is suspense and romance, making this one terrific book!

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1990

Out of Print

Street of the Five Moons (2)

Out of Print

Silhouette in Scarlet (3)

When American art historian Vicky Bliss receives a one-way plane ticket to Stockholm from her former lover, the stage is set for a rendezvous with danger. Suddenly Vicky finds herself being courted by a dashing Viking, but she never suspects that her life
may depend on finding a long-lost Nordic treasure . . . before it's too late.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1994

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Trojan Gold (4)

Journeying to the posh ski resorts of Southern Germany, art historian Vicky Bliss finds her life threatened when she tries to solve a mystery while searching for the famous gold of ancient Troy.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks

Out of Print

Night Train to Memphis (5)

Offered a luxury Nile cruise if she will solve a murder and stop a heist of Egyptian antiquities, assistant curator Vicky Bliss jumps at the chance and is horrified when her investigations also unveil her lover's infidelities.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1995 reissue

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Jacqueline Kirby Mysteries Librarian/Romance Novelist

Seventh Sinner (1)

This book features a group of graduate and post-graduate students working at Rome's famed Institute of Art and Archeology. The central character is multi-faceted, often enigmatic, middle-aged Jacqueline Kirby, sometime mild-mannered librarian, sometime mom, sometime detective, and never predictable anything. She doesn't want to talk about her kids and defies all attempts to be stereotyped; nevertheless, she
becomes the center pole for this artistic, ambitious group who become embroiled in both a modern murder and an ancient mystery in the tombs and churches of the early Christian era which underlie the streets and structures of modern Rome.

Of peripheral interest in the book is Dr. Scoville, Senior, father of two members of the student group. He could be the prototype for that later developed and more famous fictional archeologist. He is brilliant, handsome, sexy, and world famous for his daring
exploits in pursuit of archeological treasures. Sound familiar, movie fans?

In this story, though, the dashing archeologist is a minor player. Jacqueline Kirby is the librarian who sleuths out the answers and convinces the equally dashing Italian police official she is right. Her people sense is as good as her book sense, too. In that way she differs from Amelia Peabody; she thinks things through before charging in. For those readers who like her as much as this reviewer, it is good to know there are more Peters
books featuring the librarian with the big purse. (From Amazon.com)

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1995 reissue

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The Murders of Richard III (2)

Jacqueline Kirby is involved with a group of Ricardians, eccentrics who are determined to prove the 'innocence' of Richard III, and who happily involve themselves in re-creation activities. Knowing some medieval re-creationists myself, she has the bizarre mix of dedication, surrealism and fanaticism you find associated with these groups down perfectly.  The mystery is witty and all that you would expect from a Jacqueline Kirby mystery.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1991 reissue

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Die For Love (3)

Jacqueline Kirby attends a New York writers' conference and finds herself in the midst of a murder mystery and romantic entanglements.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1987 reissue

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Naked Once More (4)

Jacqueline Kirby, former librarian turned best-selling novelist, is selected to write the sequel to the greatest blockbuster of all time, "Naked in the Ice". The original author, Kathleen Dray, is missing and presumed dead.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1987 reissue

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Other Mysteries

Camelot Caper

Jessica Tregarth goes to England to visit her grandfather and learn more about her late father's family. But Jessica is barely off the boat before she and ingenious author David Randall are playing a deadly game of cat-and-mouse through Cornball.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1988 reissue

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The Copenhagen Connection

Elizabeth Jones, flying to Denmark on vacation, meets her idol, a Nobel Prize-winning historian, who promptly vanishes in Copenhagen, and teams up with the historian's irascible son to search for clues in the city's underground crypts.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1994 reissue

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Dead Sea Cipher

Dinah Van deer Lynn heard the cries for help through her hotel room wall, cries in English in the middle of Beirut. She thought the men were simply drunk and fighting. Her mistake was the first step on an odyssey of terror that would take Dinah to the fabled cities of Simon, Try and Damascus.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1988 reissue

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Devil-May-Care

Devil-May-Care is a novel packed with suspense as a young couple stumble onto a book about an old Virginia town. But there are secrets in the book . . . secrets the town wants to keep buried . . . even if it means some must return from the dead!

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1989 reissue

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The Jackal's Head

Althea Tomlinson returned to Egypt as just another tourist. That's what she told herself anyway. She was really there to discover the truth behind her father's disgrace and death. Her search could clear her father's name--and kill her, because the secret
was ancient--as ancient as Nefertiti's treasure.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1995 reissue

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Legend in Green Velvet

Susan loved all things Scottish. So, when the opportunity presented itself, there was no question in her mind but that she would go on the archaeological dig in the Highlands. It was everything she could have wanted--and more. Because, suddenly, Susan was caught up in a murder investigation!.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1989 reissue

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Love Talker

When Laurie Carlton and her brother, Douglas, arrive at their aunt's home in answer to a desperate plea for help, strange things begin to happen, and Laurie begins to believe in the "little people." But it isn't fairies who are haunting everyone--it is something very human--and very dangerous. 

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1990 reissue

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The Night of Four Hundred Rabbits

Returning from a Mexico City vacation, Carol Fairly remembers the breathtaking pyramids she visited and is shocked when she receives a newspaper clipping that tells her that her missing father is still alive.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1996 reissue

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Summer of the Dragon

Graduate student D.J. Abbott leaped at the chance to stay at Hank Hunnicutt's ranch and earn $1,000 a month. What she had not expected was the house full of occult practitioners and the sudden disappearance of Hunnicutt. And when D.J. got too
close to the truth, she found her own life in danger.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1989 reissue

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Other Mystery Books - Short Stories

Malice Domestic 1

Published in conjunction with the popular Malice Domestic mystery conference, held annually in Beheads, MD, this collection of outstanding tales presents such masters as Charlotte McAllen, Barbara Paul, and Audrey Peterson, who pay homage to that most beloved of all crime writers--Agate Christie.

Published Mass Market Paperbacks 1992

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More Malice Domestic

Web site address

None but read the following:  Elizabeth Peters does not have an email address but she has provided a snail mail address:

PO Box 180
Libertytown, MD 21762-0180

According to her assistant, Elizabeth Peters (Barbara Mertz) responds to letters as time
allows.

Other sites for Elizabeth Peters

There are many sites for Elizabeth Peters so here are just a few:

Magpie's Elizabeth Peters' Page

For another great site click here

To read some reviews of the Amelia Peabody books - click here

To join an email discussion group about Elizabeth Peters' books click here.   NB there is a waiting list for this group!

Page created by Leone Moffat.

Last updated 11 February 1999