Peters, Elizabeth 1927-

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Peters, Elizabeth 1927-

[A pseudonym]

(Barbara Mertz, Barbara Gross Mertz, Barbara Michaels)

PERSONAL: Born September 29, 1927, in Canton, IL; daughter of Earl D. (a printer) and Grace (a teacher) Gross; married Richard R. Mertz (a professor of history), June 18, 1950 (divorced, 1968); children: Elizabeth Ellen, Peter William. Education: University of Chicago, Ph.B., 1947, M.A., 1950, Ph.D., 1952. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, needlework, cats, music, football, gardening, and long conversations with fellow mystery writers.

ADDRESSES: Home—Frederick, MD. Agent—Dominick Abel Literary Agency, 146 W. 82nd St., Ste. 1B, New York, NY 10024.

CAREER: Historian and writer. Member of editorial advisory boards, KMT: Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt and The Writer; Board of Governors of the American Research Center in Egypt.

MEMBER: American Crime Writers League, Egypt Exploration Society, James Henry Breasted Circle of the Oriental Institute, Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, National Organization for Women, Malice Domestic mystery writers’ convention (founding member).

AWARDS, HONORS: Grandmaster Award, Bouchercon, 1986; Agatha Award for best mystery novel of 1989, Malice Domestic Convention, for Naked Once More; D.H.L., Hood College, 1989; Grand Master, Mystery Writers of America, 1998; Malice Domestic Lifetime Achievement Award, 2003.

WRITINGS:

“AMELIA PEABODY” MYSTERY NOVELS

Crocodile on the Sandbank, Dodd (New York, NY), 1975.

The Curse of the Pharaohs, Dodd (New York, NY), 1981.

The Mummy Case, Congdon & Weed (New York, NY), 1985.

Lion in the Valley, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1986.

Deeds of the Disturber, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1988.

The Last Camel Died at Noon, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1991.

The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1992.

The Hippopotamus Pool, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1996.

Seeing a Large Cat, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1997.

The Ape Who Guards the Balance, Avon (New York, NY), 1998.

The Falcon at the Portal, Avon (New York, NY), 1999.

He Shall Thunder in the Sky, Avon (New York, NY), 2000.

Lord of the Silent, Morrow (New York, NY), 2001.

The Golden One, Morrow (New York, NY), 2002.

Children of the Storm, Morrow (New York, NY), 2003.

(Editor, with Kristen Whitbread) Amelia Peabody’s Egypt: A Compendium to Her Journals, Morrow (New York, NY), 2003.

Guardian of the Horizon, Morrow (New York, NY), 2004.

The Serpent on the Crown, William Morrow (New York, NY), 2005.

Tomb of the Golden Bird, Morrow (New York, NY), 2006.

“JACQUELINE KIRBY” MYSTERY NOVELS

The Seventh Sinner, Dodd (New York, NY), 1972.

The Murders of Richard III, Dodd (New York, NY), 1974.

Die for Love, Congdon & Weed (New York, NY), 1984. Naked Once More, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1989.

“VICKY BLISS MYSTERY NOVELS

The Camelot Caper, Meredith Press (New York, NY), 1969.

Borrower of the Night, Dodd (New York, NY), 1973.

Street of the Five Moons, Dodd (New York, NY), 1978.

Silhouette in Scarlet, Congdon & Weed (New York, NY), 1983.

Trojan Gold, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1987.

Night Train to Memphis, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1994.

OTHER MYSTERY NOVELS

The Jackal’s Head, Meredith Press (New York, NY), 1968.

The Dead Sea Cipher, Dodd (New York, NY), 1970.

The Night of 400 Rabbits, Dodd (New York, NY), 1971, published as Shadows in the Moonlight, Coronet (London, England), 1975.

Legend in Green Velvet, Dodd (New York, NY), 1976, published as Ghost in Green Velvet, Cassell (London, England), 1977.

Devil-May-Care, Dodd (New York, NY), 1977.

Summer of the Dragon, Dodd (New York, NY), 1979.

The Love Talker, Dodd (New York, NY), 1980.

The Copenhagen Connection, Congdon & Lattes (New York, NY), 1982.

(Editor) Elizabeth Peters Presents Malice Domestic: An Anthology of Original Traditional Mystery Stories, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1992.

AS BARBARA MERTZ

Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs: The Story of Egyptology, Coward (New York, NY), 1964, new revised edition, Peter Bedrick (New York, NY), 1990, 2nd edition, William Morrow (New York, NY), 2007.

Red Land, Black Land: The World of the Ancient Egyptians, Coward (New York, NY), 1966, new revised edition, Peter Bedrick (New York, NY), 1990, William Morrow (New York, NY), 2008.

(With husband, Richard R. Mertz) Two Thousand Years in Rome, Coward (New York, NY), 1968.

ROMANTIC SUSPENSE NOVELS; AS BARBARA MICHAELS

The Master of Blacktower, Appleton (New York, NY), 1966.

Sons of the Wolf, Meredith Press (New York, NY), 1967, published as Mystery on the Moors, Paperback Library (New York, NY), 1968.

Ammie, Come Home, Meredith Press (New York, NY), 1968.

Prince of Darkness, Meredith Press (New York, NY), 1969.

Dark on the Other Side, Dodd (New York, NY), 1970.

The Crying Child, Dodd (New York, NY), 1971.

Greygallows, Dodd (New York, NY), 1972.

Witch, Dodd (New York, NY), 1973.

House of Many Shadows, Dodd (New York, NY), 1974.

The Sea King’s Daughter, Dodd (New York, NY), 1975.

Patriot’s Dream, Dodd (New York, NY), 1976.

Wings of the Falcon, Dodd (New York, NY), 1977.

Wait for What Will Come, Dodd (New York, NY), 1978.

The Walker in the Shadows, Dodd (New York, NY), 1979.

The Wizard’s Daughter, Dodd (New York, NY), 1980.

Someone in the House, Dodd (New York, NY), 1981.

Black Rainbow, Congdon & Weed (New York, NY), 1982.

Here I Stay, Congdon & Weed (New York, NY), 1983.

Dark Duet, Congdon & Weed (New York, NY), 1983.

The Grey Beginning, Congdon & Weed (New York, NY), 1984.

Be Buried in the Rain, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1985.

Shattered Silk, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1986.

Search the Shadows, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1987.

Smoke and Mirrors, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1989.

Into the Darkness, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1990.

Vanish with the Rose, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1992.

Houses of Stone, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1993.

Stitches in Time, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1995.

The Dancing Floor, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1997.

Other Worlds: The Bell Witch and the Stratford Haunting, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1999.

ADAPTATIONS: Ammie, Come Home was broadcast by ABC-TV in 1969. The Golden One is available on audio cassette.

SIDELIGHTS: Elizabeth Peters has been responsible for over seventy mystery and suspense novels and was acknowledged for the quality and quantity of her works by being awarded the Malice Domestic Lifetime Achievement Award. Peters is a pseudonym for Barbara Mertz, and she also writes as Barbara Michaels. Whether writing quasi-supernatural tales of romantic suspense as Michaels, or humorous, often historical mysteries as Peters, in both cases she uses her skill in setting, factual research, and subversion of the genre’s conventions. In addition, as Dulcy Brainard described in Publishers Weekly, all of Peters’s books feature “female protagonists who survive danger and solve mysteries with wit, intelligence, good humor and, usually, good fortune in romance.” Deirdre Donahue likewise observed in USA Today: “Few heroines are more bold—or hilarious—than the ones created by Barbara Mertz.”

Many of her books also feature the landscape of Egypt. As Andrea Sachs noted in a Time magazine profile of the writer with many names, “The glamour of Egypt, the mummies, the pyramids and the shifting sands ensnared Mertz… when she was thirteen.” She earned a doctorate in Egyptology from the University of Chicago when she was just twenty-three and was hoping to establish a career as an archaeologist. However, for two decades after graduation, she was instead a wife and mother two children. By the time the feminist movement was in full swing, Mertz was no longer a homemaker. Her children grown and her marriage ending in divorce, she had moved from the kitchen to the study, penning her first suspense novel under the name of Michaels in 1966. “Mertz’s success as an author came like a machine gun,” Sachs noted, and by her fourth book, she had established herself as an independent writer, turning out at least one mystery per year under her pen names.

Becoming a self-supporting fiction writer is as large a leap of faith as was her earlier ambition to become a female archaeologist in the 1950s. However, for Peters, the gamble has paid off nicely, allowing her to live on nine acres in an old farmhouse in Maryland and to travel regularly to Egypt for research and relaxation. Thus, her female protagonists display much of the same grit and intensity as their author.

The characters in the Elizabeth Peters books, for instance, are women who “burst forth their corsets of self-doubt and outside denigration, and learn to make it on their own or as equal partners with their lovers,” Sarah Booth Conroy wrote in the Washington Post. “All are opinionated, independent, strong, brusque, suspicious, quick to take offense, slow to ask for help, and funny.” Among Peters’s recurring characters are Amelia Peabody, an Egyptologist, Jacqueline Kirby, a librarian, and Vicky Bliss, an art historian. Amelia Peabody is a thoroughly modern Victorian who sets out on adventures with her archaeologist husband, precocious son, and shrewd cat companion. “Peters’s female protagonists,” wrote Kay Mussell in the St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, “are intelligent, strong, and intrepid. Rarely overtly feminist, all are nevertheless independent women who relate to men from a position of equality and respect.”

While combining the “comic detective story” with the “period whodunit” can be very challenging, as Kevin Moore asserted in a Chicago Tribune Books review of Deeds of the Disturber, “no one is better at juggling torches while dancing on a high wire than Elizabeth Peters.” The Peabody novel Lion in the Valley is a “heady melange of excitement and merriment, enhanced by the Victorian locutions in the peppery archeologist’s journal,” Publishers Weekly critic Sybil Steinberg stated. And while the “superhuman” characters of Lion in the Valley are somewhat unbelievable, a Toronto Globe and Mail reviewer stated, nevertheless the author’s “use of the setting and the archaeological information is first rate.” As the “Amelia Peabody” series has developed, Peters has added to the humor and mystery of the books a thread that highlights the personal lives of her characters and their relationships—some intimate, some familial, some collegial, and some adversarial. A Publishers Weekly contributor remarked of the 1997 Seeing a Large Cat, “Peters’s fans will relish this latest adventure that explores mysteries of the heart as well as murder.”

As Michele Slung noted in Victoria, “When we first meet her in 1884, in Crocodile on the Sandbank, Amelia Peabody is a well-bred, unmarried Englishwoman who has rarely left the village where she has grown up, and whose education has been gained by devouring the library of her reclusive father.” Inheriting wealth from her father, Amelia decides to set off on a life of adventure that has been disallowed her in Victorian England. In Egypt she meets the good-looking archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson, and she is soon “contentedly awash in murder and mayhem amid the dusty tombs and temples of the Egyptian plain,” as Slung commented. Reviewing this “delightful” debut series title in Booklist, Shelle Rosenfeld praised Amelia’s “breezy sharp-witted narrative and commentary on human behavior.” Slung went on to note, “Thus, the course is set for Amelia’s future career as a bluestocking habitue of the highly colorful Egypt of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.” Over the course of numerous books featuring Amelia Peabody, Peters has developed a cast of recurring characters and a legion of loyal fans. As Slung further observed, “All in all, the world of Amelia Peabody is seductive, and in that way not dissimilar to the Baker Street household surrounding Sherlock Holmes.” For New York Times Book Review critic Marilyn Stasio, the entire series of “giddy tales of feminine derring-do” is “disarming.”

In an interview with Jean Swanson in Publishers Weekly, Mertz explained that the “Amelia Peabody” series has changed over the course of its lifetime: “It started out being a rather giddy, frivolous sendup of various forms of genre fiction: the detective story, the gothic novel… I had a very jolly time with it. Then, as time went on, not only did the characters change, but I thought I should introduce a new viewpoint. And then Amelia had a baby… Ramses the terror—he was described by someone as the most awful child in mystery fiction, which I thought was a huge compliment!”

Peters has penned almost a score of the tales featuring plucky Amelia, her family, associates, and major nemeses. Reviewing The Last Camel Died at Noon, a Publishers Weekly reviewer noted: “If Indiana Jones were female, a wife and mother who lived in Victorian times, he would be Amelia Peabody Emerson, an archeologist whose extraordinary adventures are guaranteed entertainment.” Here Amelia, her husband, and son are on the trail of a long missing archaeologist in Sudan. The Hippopotamus Pool finds the cast of regulars in Thebes, excavating for a lost treasure. Booklist reviewer Emily Merton praised “Peters’ wonderful, rapid-fire wit and the delightful Amelia herself… that make this series such a long-running success.” Similarly, a Publishers Weekly critic noted of the same novel, “The melodramatic 19th-century writing style studded with Amelia’s sly wit makes this series unique to the subgenre of historical mysteries.”

In The Ape Who Guards the Balance the younger members of the Emerson family take center stage, led by the son Ramses and his adopted sister, Nefret, in search of an Egyptian papyrus. Booklist contributor Stephanie Zvirin noted that, in addition to her usual humor and period setting, “Peters also incorporates some terrific action and a nice bit of romantic tension between Ramses and Nefret.” High praise for the series addition came from a Publishers Weekly reviewer who dubbed the book “a grand, galloping adventure with a heart as big as the Great Pyramid itself.” The Falcon at the Portal is a large, sprawling addition to the series, involving murder, a love affair gone bad, stolen artifacts, and the beginnings of the Pan-Arab movement in Egypt. A Publishers Weekly reviewer thought, “Peters has never written with more assurance or passion than she does in this latest chronicle of a superb series.”

As Ramses becomes a teen, Peters introduces what she calls a “second point of view.” She commented to Swanson: “I’d been giving his mother’s view of him all these years, which is a little unfair. I thought it’d be fun to show what he thought of her, and what he was doing on the side.” So, by the time Peters wrote He Shall Thunder in the Sky—which finds the extended Peabody-Emerson family excavating an archaeological site in Cairo as World War I begins and in which even Lawrence of Arabia makes an appearance—Ramses has been trans-formed into a “grown heartbreaker,” according to a review by Deidre Donahue in USA Today. “Some big surprises are in store for readers while Peters deftly ties her subplots together,” commented Jeff Zaleski in a Publishers Weekly review, “but a few threads are left dangling enticingly at the end, leaving fans to expect another installment in this extraordinary series.” And, of course, The Golden One and Children of the Storm pick up on those threads.

The Golden One is set in 1917, and Amelia and her family, returning to Egypt for another season of excavations, find that the conflict has reached their beloved Luxor. Soon Amelia and the rest are involved in an adventure that involves the full panoply of wartime characters, including Turkish spies. Children of the Storm furthers the adventures. As Lee Smith explained in Book, “In this latest, which begins at the end of the First World War, the Peabody-Emerson family faces old enemies and frantic races down the Nile with the same humor and passion that have fueled the last fourteen books.” “A fast-moving, intrigue-filled plot propels” this work, wrote a Publishers Weekly reviewer of Children of the Storm.

Guardian of the Horizon, from 2004, “will have particular appeal for fans,” wrote a critic for Publishers Weekly, as the author revisits earlier adventures and fills in gaps in the chronology of the Emersons. The Serpent on the Crown moves the action forward to 1922 and involves a supposedly cursed artifact and the death of a writer. Booklist contributor Zvirin termed this “a pleasant addition to the long-running series,” while a reviewer for Publishers Weekly concluded: “The author’s droll sense of humor and picture of a leisurely and less complicated age add to the appeal.” In the 2006 installment to the series, Tomb of the Golden Bird, Peters uses as a historical backdrop the actual discovery and opening in 1922 of Tutankhamon’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. A Publishers Weekly reviewer found this novel “absorbing,” and went on to comment, “Once again Peters delivers an irresistible mix of archeology, action, humor and a mystery that only the redoubtable Amelia can solve.” And reviewing this eighteenth title in the long-running series, Booklist contributor Zvirin concluded, “It’s a continuing pleasure for mystery fans to be drawn into the Emersons’ unusual extended circle.”

In the Peters books that feature librarian-turned-romance novelist Jacqueline Kirby, the author makes effective use of her various backdrops. The early Kirby novel The Murders of Richard III, for instance, takes place during a role-playing conference conducted by aficionados of the fifteenth-century English king. The mystery includes a debate over Richard’s actual historical role—as well as a murder—and “Peters has researched her material carefully and rearranged the implausible into the likely,” a New Republic critic remarked. The result is that the book has “sustained her well-earned superior reputation.” Die for Love is set in a romance writers’ convention. Nevertheless, it is the protagonist, rather than the settings, that gives the series its style and humor; Jacqueline’s “hilarious habit of lapsing into exquisitely crafted romance cliche” is particularly commendable, Carolyn Banks noted in a Washington Post review of Naked Once More. Some critics, such as New York Times Book Review contributor Joanne Kaufman, found the satire in the Kirby books “not consistent enough in style to work as parody.” But as Florence King wrote in another New York Times Book Review article, “nonetheless Elizabeth Peters manages to pull this… out.” In the course of the mystery, the author “makes some valid points about the importance of being selfish for women in the creative arts, delivers some hilariously cynical reflections on book tours and literary fans and wisely avoids the gratuitous sex scenes that spoil so many mysteries,” the critic concluded.

Vicky Bliss, Peters’ third series character, faces a world where it is a curse to be tall, blonde, and smart. But this American art historian—who works for the Munich National Museum in Germany, and who travels to exotic locations in search of art, mystery, and love—manages because of her strong self-reliance. In Night Train to Memphis, Vicky voyages up the Nile to help the Munich police foil a plot by art thieves. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly observed that this “quirky, lighthearted novel sports some harrowing moments… but with its emphasis on Vicky’s love life, the story remains essentially a spirited soap opera interspersed with guidebook descriptions.”

The Barbara Michaels novels also feature independent women solving puzzles—often personal ones—and provide each heroine with a chance to discover romance. “In the Michaels books,” Conroy detailed, “customarily the woman has just broken up with (or, notably in the delightful Devil-May-Care, is about to break up with) her current lover, or her husband has been removed from the cast before the book opens by divorce or death.” Most Michaels books, however, differ from the Peters books in tone, for they are more serious and contain more supernatural elements—a side that has led some to classify them as “modern Gothics.” Peters disputes this term as inaccurate, however: “Gothics are a type of fiction popular around the turn of the nineteenth century,” she told Brainard. “They were supernatural horror stories with ghosts. The only things those novels and some of the things I’ve done have in common is setting—ruined castles off in the mists. Gothics have nothing to do with the moderns, which are suspense stories.”

Search the Shadows, for instance, follows Haskell Maloney as she searches for the truth about her parentage. Her investigation leads her to the University of Chicago, where her mother studied Egyptology, and eventually to a spooky mansion-museum. “Michaels follows the form” of the genre, wrote Washington Post contributor Bruce Van Wyngarden, “but manages for the most part to transcend the formula,” due in particular to her “strong characterizations.” Be Buried in the Rain similarly deals with personal ghosts and family skeletons. The Michaels mysteries also avail themselves of Peters’s skill with setting and prose style. In Here I Stay, for instance, small-town life in Maryland is portrayed as vital and interesting.

Peters’s comfort with the formal aspects of the romantic suspense genre, her feel for the power of setting, and her command of style have served her well in maintaining a consistent level of quality and reader interest in a body of works written over a period of three decades. Yet, perhaps the main reason she has been able to keep her writing fresh is due to her strong, compelling characters. Writing about the Michaels book Vanish with the Rose—a novel that involves Diana Reed, a lawyer-turned-amateur detective trying to find her missing brother—a Publishers Weekly reviewer commented: “Michaels once again offers a witty, intricate and ultimately surprising story, with strong characterizations that keep the sparks flying.”

Stitches in Time involves another spirited female protagonist, doctoral student Rachel Grant, who is drawn into a murder investigation via an old quilt. Reviewing this novel in Booklist, Denise Perry Donavin called the work “an incredible mystery based on a haunted quilt.” Heather Tradescant is at the center of the Michaels 1997 work, The Dancing Floor. An ex-teacher is led into mystery through a garden maze in this tale that is “everything a romance reader can ask for,” according to a Publishers Weekly contributor.

No matter which pseudonym, series character, or subject Peters uses, “the suspense is the most important element,” the author said in Love’s Leading Ladies. While the romantic and humorous elements are important, especially in pacing, she added, “the part I enjoy is the mystery; I read books like this long before I started to write them.” As a result, a USA Today critic concluded: “In the skilled hands of Barbara Mertz, murder can be terrifying. Or it can be laugh-aloud hilarious, particularly when one of Mertz’s wonderful heroines takes control.”

The woman behind Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels is not only the source for insight into their characters, but she is also the source for their extensive knowledge of the disciplines and settings explored in their novels. Peters earned a Ph.D. in Egyptology in 1952 from the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. Before she established herself as a mystery and romance novelist, she published a pair of well-received nonfiction books on ancient Egyptian culture and the search for its relics. Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs: The Story of Egyptology, first published in 1964, represents “a delightful introduction to the field,” commented Phoebe Adams in the Atlantic Monthly. According to William Albright of Book Week, Peters (writing as Mertz) “knows how to recapture the life of the ancient Egyptians as well as to describe some of the colorful figures who created the science in which she specializes… her book is highly recommended to all serious amateurs… without being pedantic, she explains such things as Egyptian writing and archaeological methods clearly and tersely.”

In Red Land, Black Land: The World of the Ancient Egyptians, Peters offers “a witty and informative excursion into the world of the ancient Egyptian,” wrote A.R. Shulman in Natural History. The reviewer believed that the book “takes the mummies out of the tombs and turns them into what they once were—living, thinking, feeling human beings.” Another merit of the book, in the view of a critic for the Economist, is that Peters avoids lecturing the reader. She “is so well versed in the countless rival theories and pieces of guesswork of her colleagues that she never thrusts judgments upon the reader; she gives him all the variants and leaves him to think what he likes.”

Of her life as a writer of nonfiction on Egyptology, mysteries, and romantic suspense novels, Peters once told CA: “I’m rather proud of the fact… that my three alter egos are so different from one another. I know a lot of other people do different series under different names, but I do think mine are quite different. This is wonderful, because it gives me a chance to be all the different people I really am.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Falk, Kathryn, Love’s Leading Ladies, Pinnacle Books (New York, NY), 1982.

Grape, Jan, and other editors, Deadly Women, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 1998.

Mailing, Susan, editor, A-Z Murder Goes… Artful, Poisoned Pen Press (Scottsdale, AZ), 1998.

Nicholas, Victoria, and Susan Thompson, Silk Stalkings: When Women Write of Murder, Black Lizard Books (Berkeley, CA), 1988.

St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, 4th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1996.

PERIODICALS

Atlantic Monthly, May, 1964, Phoebe Adams, review of Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs: The Story of Egyptology, p. 142.

Book, March 1, 2003, Lee Smith “The Jewel of the Nile: Under the Pen Name Elizabeth Peters, the Globe-trotting American Egyptologist Barbara Mertz Unearths the Ancient Mysteries of a Mummified Past,” p. 30.

Booklist, October 15, 1993, Denise Perry Donavin, review of Houses of Stone, p. 418; May 1, 1995, Denise Perry Donavin, review of Stitches in Time, p. 1531; December 15, 1995, Emily Melton, review of The Hippopotamus Pool, p. 668; January 1, 1997, Jennifer Henderson, review of The Dancing Floor, p. 779; June 1, 1998, Stephanie Zvirin, review of The Ape Who Guards the Balance, p. 1670; April 15, 1999, Ilene Cooper, review of The Falcon at the Portal, p. 1484; May 1, 2000, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of Crocodile on the Sandbank, p. 1609; March 1, 2001, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Lord of the Silent, p. 1188; February 15, 2002, Stephanie Zvirin, review of The Golden One, p. 971; February 1, 2003, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Children of the Storm, p. 956; March 1, 2004, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Guardian of the Horizon, p. 1101; August, 2004, Barbara Baskin, review of Guardian of the Horizon, p. 1953; March 1, 2005, Stephanie Zvirin, review of The Serpent on the Crown, p. 1102; February 15, 2006, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Tomb of the Golden Bird, p. 6.

Book Week, April 12, 1964, William Albright, review of Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs, p. 8.

Boston Globe, May 13, 2002, Clea Simon, “Serial Mysteries Meet Domestic Bliss,” p. D14.

Crime, April 20, 2003, Marilyn Stasio, review of Children of the Storm, p. 22.

Denver Post, May 7, 2000, Tom and Enid Schantz, review of He Shall Thunder in the Sky, p. F2.

Economist, December 2, 1967, review of Red Land, Black Land: The World of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 18.

Entertainment Weekly, June 1, 2001, Rachel Orvino, review of Lord of the Silent, p. 84.

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), August 30, 1986, review of Lion in the Valley.

Guardian (London, England), September 29, 2001, Maxim Jakubowski, review of Lord of the Silent, p. 12.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2006, review of Tomb of the Golden Bird, p. 213.

Library Journal, February 15, 1997, Michael Rogers, review of The Camelot Caper, p. 166; January, 1999, Jill M. Tempest, review of Other Worlds: The Bell Witch and the Stratford Haunting, p. 165; May 1, 2001, Laurel Bliss, review of Lord of the Silent, p. 132; March 1, 2003, Laurel Bliss, review of Children of the Storm, p. 123; February 15, 2004, Alison M. Lewis, review of Amelia Peabody’s Egypt: A Compendium to Her Journals, p. 125; April 1, 2005, Laurel Bliss, review of The Serpent on the Crown, p. 76.

Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1999, Margo Kaufman, review of The Falcon at the Portal, p. 12.

Natural History, April, 1967, A.R. Shulman, review of Red Land, Black Land, p. 76.

New Republic, September 14, 1974, review of The Murders of Richard III.

New York Times Book Review, June 24, 1984, Joanne Kaufman, review of Die for Love, p. 22; October 15, 1989, Florence King, review of Naked Once More, p. 46; June 10, 2001, Marilyn Stasio, review of Lord of the Silent, p. 28; April 21, 2002, Marilyn Stasio, review of The Golden One, p. 18.

Publishers Weekly, March 7, 1986, Sybil Steinberg, review of Lion in the Valley, p. 85; October 23, 1987, Dulcy Brainard, “Barbara Michaels—Elizabeth Peters; Writing Romantic Suspense Fiction under One Pseudonym, and Mysteries under Another, She Often Uses Her Knowledge of Archeology in Both Genres,” interview, p. 39; June 28, 1991, review of The Last Camel Died at Noon, p. 90; June 1, 1992, review of Vanish with the Rose, p. 54; July 27, 1992, review of The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog, p. 50; September 20, 1993, review of Houses of Stone, p. 62; August 15, 1994, review of Night Train to Memphis, p. 89; April 24, 1995, review of Stitches in Time, p. 62; February 12, 1996, review of The Hippopotamus Pool, p. 62; January 13, 1997, review of The Dancing Floor, p. 53; May 5, 1997, review of Seeing a Large Cat, p. 201; June 8, 1998, review of The Ape Who Guards the Balance, p. 49; January 11, 1999, review of Other Worlds, p. 58; May 3, 1999, review of The Falcon at the Portal, p. 69; May 1, 2000, Jeff Zaleski, review of He Shall Thunder in the Sky, pp. 43, 46; April 23, 2001, Jean Swanson, “Elizabeth Peters,” interview, p. 53; April 23, 2001, Peter Cannon, review of Lord of the Silent, p. 52; March 11, 2002, Peter Cannon, review of The Golden One, pp. 54-55; March 3, 2003, review of Children of the Storm, p. 57; October 6, 2003, review of Amelia Peabody’s Egypt, p. 65; March 1, 2004, review of Guardian of the Horizon, p. 54; March 7, 2005, review of The Serpent on the Crown, p. 53; February 13, 2006, review of Tomb of the Golden Bird, p. 64.

School Library Journal, July, 2003, Claudia Moore, review of Children of the Storm, p. 152.

Time, June 2, 2003, Andrea Sachs, “Mystery Tours: Barbara Mertz Takes Her Readers on Suspenseful Trips through Egypt,” p. 8.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), April 24, 1988, Kevin Moore, “Whodunits with a Sprinkle of Laughter,” p. 7.

USA Today, May 18, 2000, Deirdre Donahue, review of He Shall Thunder in the Sky, p. 6D.

Victoria, July, 2002, Michelle Slung, “Sleuthing the Sahara,” p. 102.

Washington Post, November 27, 1987, Bruce Van Wyn-garden, “The High-Grade Heroine,” p. G4; June 11, 1989, Sarah Booth Conroy, “The Triple-Threat Mystery,” p. Fl; October 10, 1989, Carolyn Banks, “Mystery Most Mirthful,” p. C2; June 17, 2001, “Barbara Mertz: A Writer of Many Parts,” p. WBK.3.