In case you haven’t already heard, Barbara Mertz--the author and Egyptologist best known under two pseudonyms, Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels--died earlier today at her home in Maryland. She was just seven weeks shy of her 86th birthday.
As the Associated Press explains, Mertz--born in Canton, Illinois, as Barbara Louise Gross--“wrote more than 35 mysteries under the name Elizabeth Peters, including her most popular series about a daring Victorian archaeologist named Amelia Peabody. She also wrote 29 suspense novels under the pen name Barbara Michaels, and under her own name, she wrote non-fiction books about ancient Egypt.”
A full list of her books can be found at her Web site.
Wikipedia notes that Mertz was “the recipient of a number of grandmaster and lifetime achievement awards, including being named Grand Master at the Anthony Awards in 1986 and Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1998; in 2003, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Malice Domestic Convention. In 2012 she was honored with the first Amelia Peabody Award at the Malice Domestic Convention; the award was named after the leading character in her long-running series.”
Our best wishes go out to her family.
(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
READ MORE: “Dr. Barbara Mertz, Trailblazer,” by Elizabeth Foxwell
(The Bunburyist); “A Tribute to Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Mertz,” by Oline Cogdill (Mystery Scene).
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