Elizabeth Peters

26 fiction

Elizabeth Peters was the principal pen name of American author and Egyptologist Barbara Mertz (1927–2013). She earned a doctorate in Egyptology from the University of Chicago and used her academic knowledge to write mysteries combining archaeology, humour and historical adventure. She also published supernatural and Gothic suspense novels as Barbara Michaels, while her non-fiction works on ancient Egypt appeared under her own name.

Peters is best known for the Amelia Peabody series, which begins with Crocodile on the Sandbank and follows an independent Victorian archaeologist, her husband Radcliffe Emerson and their family through excavations, murders and political intrigue in Egypt and the Middle East. Set between the 1880s and the First World War, the novels include The Curse of the Pharaohs, The Mummy Case, The Last Camel Died at Noon and He Shall Thunder in the Sky. Peters also wrote the contemporary archaeological adventures of art historian Vicky Bliss and the Jacqueline Kirby mystery series.

Periods and events

World War I Late Victorian Empire Second Intermediate Period of Egypt Edwardian Society Armistice and Aftermath of World War I Interwar Archaeology and Tourism in the Middle East Mahdist War Amarna Period Edwardian Era Victorian London Victorian Crime and Sensation Culture Late Ottoman Empire World War II Carolingian Empire

Historical fiction

Historical fiction series by Elizabeth Peters (2 series)

Amelia Peabody in Order

Tomb of the Golden Bird

4.5

Vicky Bliss Mysteries in Order

by Elizabeth Peters 6 books 4.3

The Vicky Bliss mysteries follow an American art historian working at Munich’s National Museum whose expertise repeatedly draws her into cases involving stolen antiquities, forged masterpieces and missing treasures. Her investigations move through castles, museums, excavation sites and private collections across Europe and Egypt. The continuing relationship between…