Sad news for her readers, even if she had one heck of a good run. From the Washington Post:
Barbara Mertz, an erstwhile Egyptologist better known to millions of readers as Barbara Michaels or Elizabeth Peters, the noms de plume on the covers of her dozens of top-selling historical mysteries and romantic thrillers, died Aug. 8 at her home near Frederick. She was 85.
Her daughter, Elizabeth Mertz, confirmed her death and said she did not yet know the cause.
Dr. Mertz was one of the most popular writers of her era and genres. Her oeuvre encompassed adventure, romance, history, the supernatural and timeless themes such as the imprudence of standing in the way of a woman on a mission. She churned out books with extraordinary speed, once remarking that she had lost count of them sometime around the publication of her 50th volume.
She wrote more than two dozen novels as Barbara Michaels, the pseudonym under which she made her fiction debut with “The Master of Blacktower” in 1966, and more than three dozen as Elizabeth Peters. Those books included a long-running series about the parasol-toting Victorian pyramid explorer Amelia Peabody…
Dr. Mertz acknowledged that Peabody — the protagonist of books including “Crocodile on the Sandbank” (1975) and “The Last Camel Died at Noon” (1991) — was not unlike herself. Fascinated from a young age by the ancient world of the pharaohs, Dr. Mertz pursued a doctorate in Egyptology at a time when relatively few women sought and even fewer found professional career opportunities.
She wrote two scholarly books on ancient Egypt in the 1960s but was unable to find employment in academia. When she turned to fiction, she discovered that she had a talent, and that readers had an appetite, for particular tales of historical intrigue…
Many readers found, and Dr. Mertz seemed to acknowledge, that Elizabeth Peters was the funnier of the alter egos. In economic terms, she explained: “Peters supplies me with a comfortable living. Michaels buys me lily ponds and gazebos.”….
More at the link.
I’m not looking forward to telling the Spousal Unit — he adores the Peters mysteries, and was charmed to discover they were written by the author whose Red Land, Black Land introduced him to Egyptology back in his high school days.
NotMax
Someone with specialized knowledge of Egypt and who operated under various phoney names (obviously something to hide) died of unknown causes while Obama was president.
Cue the FOX News Chyron: SCANDAL!
srv
Sarah can no doubt fill us in on this woman, once she finishes Snowden off.
TheMightyTrowel
serious frowny face. I love the Amelia Peabody mysteries! I’d like to think she’s hanging with Agatha Christie and Flinders Petrie at the big booze-soaked dig in the sky.
Mary G
Oh, I loved those Amelia Peabody books – so funny, with that lethal umbrella of hers. She made me smile a lot.
Brief Higgs Boson’s Mate update: yesterday wasn’t too good, but today I got on my new mobility scooter and Higgs walked and we went out to the end of this pier and then along a trail next to the railroad tracks for half a mile or so. There is a soft spot where beach sand has blown up and bogged down the trail; I got the scooter through it fine the first time through, but on the way back got completely stuck trying to go to the side I thought was a little firmer. A bunch of people came and helped push it out. Sunday some of his people are bringing him some of his stuff, including his computer, so that’s a good sign. He is so charming and funny, I wish you all could meet him. He made shrimp fried rice for dinner, yum.
Linkmeister
John might appreciate this line: “She had a predilection for cats, a least a few of whom she named after Egyptian pharaohs and Washington Redskins players.”
I own and have read many of her books no matter which name she used. She’d pretty much finished Amelia with her next-to-last book. The last one went back and filled in a hole earlier in the saga. I was hoping for another Vicky Bliss book, but it wasn’t meant to be, I guess. I’ll miss her work.
Stella B.
Bummer. I love AP. i went to school with one of EM’s kids. I guess he must be an old man of 55 or so by now. I wonder how that happened.
Jack Canuck
Never heard of her, but the Amelia Peabody books sound like something I’d enjoy. I’ll have to check them out sometime.
dance around in your bones
@Mary G: Thank you so much for the updates on HBM – I hope things will continue to improve for him (love hearing how he is so charming and funny) and maybe once he gets his computer he will feel (when he is ready) to post back here again.
Shrimp fried rice! Who could ask for anything more? FSM bless you both.
NotMax
@Mary G
Good on you.
And fingers crossed that there was some Chinese mustard in the larder.
JoyceH
Oh, for heaven’s sake. Barbara Michaels wrote Red Land, Black Land?!
I still have my copy, first read it in high school.
Ramiah Ariya
Miss Mertz, You are not a Pharaoh. What qualifies you to write about them?
SG
Oh, dear. This is very sad news. Elizabeth Peters made Amelia Peabody and Emerson as real to me as any of my long-time friends. It was miserable to lose Charlotte MacLeod and her wonderful crowd of eccentrics. This is much worse.
Aimai
@Stella B.: I knew her daughter for a few years. I had always loved her books as a teenager znd it was weird to meet her daughter in real life because in reality she was such a down to earth person with a perfectly normal academic background.
TomG
Wow. I love to read, and I’d never heard of this author. Sounds definitely like the kind of stories I would enjoy – I’ll have to start getting a few out of the library to see what they are like. Too bad that she’s passed away, but it sounds like she had a long and useful life, with many fans.
gelfling545
OH, this is terrible. It was a happy day for me when I first discovered the Peabody-Emmerson clan and the prospect of a future without new episodes is dismal. She was a wonderful, engaging writer and, as my daughter says, actually took a PhD in an historical subject & made real money with it. I loved the way in which she insinuated actual well known persons from the era into the narrative. I would have found her other work as EP a lot more interesting if I had not encountered the Peabody chronicles first and I never got interested in the Barbara Michaels stuff. Nothing else can compare to the Peabody stories. Dr. Mertz leaves this world a legacy of great enjoyment deftly infused with learning.
SiubhanDuinne
@Stella B.: Barbara and my aunt were classmates at Oak Park-River Forest High School (Illinois). They were never friends, just passing acquaintances, but got used to seeing each other decades later at various book shows and mystery conferences.
Kathi
Oh, no! I found the Peabody mysteries after returning from a couple of years in Cairo and have been eagerly awaiting a new one. Serious bummer…
Percysowner
I never got into Amelia Peabody, but I adored the books she wrote as Barbara Michaels. Sad to see someone with her talent is no longer with us.
Elizabelle
@Mary G:
You and HBM/Dennis are the best. Hope more gourmet food and happiness and walks are in both y’all’s futures.
=====
Never knew what the Amelia Peabody books were; or why Elizabeth Peters was famous. (And Frederick MD: she’s practically a local.)
Sound worth checking out. Thank you and RIP.
Kristine
I haven’t read the AP books, but she also wrote “Naked Once More,” a decent mystery and a spot-on-as-hell skewering of both the publishing industry and the families who deal with, or don’t deal with, the writer in the house.
DanF
Noooo!!! I love the Amelia Peabody series. I suspected the last book was going to be the end of the series given how it ended and her age. She was one of those rare talents who could be prolific and maintain quality. I might have to go back and re-read them from the beginning. RIP.
askew
Same here. I always learned something when I read those books. Be Buried In The Rain is one of my favorites. So sorry to read that she has passed. RIP.
Gretchen
I loved Amelia and Emerson, their son Ramses, and the cat Bastet.
Ann Marie
I will miss her writing. Her Amelia Peabody books are hilarious. Now I need to go back and re-read them all.
Sister Inspired Revolver of Freedom
Damn! I’ve read so many of her books and loved them all. RIP, and have a great trip. I’m going to miss you.
Tehanu
I never could stand Amelia Peabody but I absolutely loved ALL of her other books, under whichever name, especially the Vicky Bliss-Sir John Smythe ones. “The Camelot Caper” and “Night Train to Memphis” and “The Night of 400 Rabbits” … darn it. Well, I’m sorry she’s gone, I too was hoping for another Bliss book.
nickrud
Barbara Peters wrote Red Land, Black Land? Count me as another flabbergasted fan of Ms Peter’s stories who was turned on to archeology by that book.
Ben Mays
More confirmation that this website contains my “virtual tribe”. First my daughter geeks out on all the gamer references (thanks em goldman for providing a link to your daughter’s blog), then the repeated Firefly/Dr. Who references, and now Annie’s comment on Ms. Mertz. My wife has everything she wrote (Egyptology and all) and had her sign stuff for her 3 years ago. It’s good to have a home.