Barbara Mertz, novelist and Egyptologist who wrote under the pen names Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels, passed away at her Maryland home August 8 one month short of her 86th birthday. As Elizabeth Peters, a pseudonym comprising the first names of her two children, Ms. Mertz created mystery stories featuring several recurring characters. Most prominent was Amelia Peabody, a sometimes sentimental, often stubborn archaeologist drawn into solving crimes at digs in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Egypt. Ms. Mertz had said that bold Amelia with her often deadly parasol was a personal inspiration after being so mousy and put upon as a youth. Fellow novelist Paul Theroux in a New York Times salute agreed: "Between Amelia Peabody and Indiana Jones, it's Amelia - in wit and daring - by a landslide."
Born in Canton, Illinois, Barbara Mertz earned a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago in the early 1950s. So not to be confused with earlier nonfiction work on her given subject, Ms. Mertz wrote her first novel under the name Barbara Michaels in 1966 which served as the outlet for suspenseful, Gothic tales set in Victorian England. For her output as Elizabeth Peters, Ms. Mertz was named a Grandmaster by the Mystery Writers of America in 1998.
Merrick Library has the following books by Barbara Mertz written under her actual name:
Red Land, Black Land:
The World of the Ancient Egyptians
Temples,Tombs and Hieroglyphs: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt
There are also the following novels by Barbara Michaels:
The Dancing Floor
Houses of Stone
Into The Darkness
Other Worlds
Smoke and Mirrors
Stitches in Time
Vanish with the Rose
And the following mysteries by Elizabeth Peters featuring Amelia Peabody:
The Ape Who Guards the Balance
Children of the Storm
The Deeds of the Disturber
The Falcon at the Portal
The Golden One
He Shall Thunder in the Sky
Lord of the Silent
A River in the Sky
Seeing A Large Cat
The Serpent on the Crown
The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog
Tomb of the Golden Bird
Out August 21st
