Elizabeth Peters Books in Order

Elizabeth Peters was the pen name of American author and Egyptologist Barbara Mertz (1927–2013), best known for the Amelia Peabody series, with 20 historical mystery novels set in Victorian and Edwardian Egypt, featuring a sharp-tongued, parasol-wielding archaeologist who solves murders while doing excavations. Elizabeth Peters earned her PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute in 1952, which gave the series an unusual authority, as the Egyptological detail in the Peabody books is based on her genuine academic expertise.

She wrote three mystery series as Elizabeth Peters, including the Amelia Peabody, Vicky Bliss, and Jacqueline Kirby series, plus several standalone novels. She also published 29 gothic and supernatural suspense novels under the name Barbara Michaels, and wrote non-fiction Egyptology titles under her own name, Barbara Mertz. She was a founding member of Malice Domestic and received Grand Master recognition from both the Mystery Writers of America and the Anthony Awards.

This page lists all Elizabeth Peters books in order, including all three series, standalones, and her short story collections.

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Amelia Peabody Series (Books in Order)

The Amelia Peabody series follows Victorian Englishwoman and self-declared spinster Amelia Peabody, who uses her inheritance to study Egyptology and ends up in Egypt in 1884, where she meets the combative archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson, marries him, and begins a decades-long career of digging up ancient sites while solving murders that she always comes across during her excavations. Set across Egypt and the wider Middle East from the 1880s through the early 1920s, the series slowly becomes a family saga as Amelia and Emerson’s son Ramses, and later their ward Nefret, become main characters in each book’s investigation.

1. Crocodile on the Sandbank, 1975
2. The Curse of the Pharaohs, 1981
3. The Mummy Case, 1985
4. Lion In The Valley, 1986
5. The Deeds of the Disturber, 1988
6. The Last Camel Died at Noon, 1991
7. The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog, 1992
8. The Hippopotamus Pool, 1996
9. Seeing a Large Cat, 1997
10. The Ape Who Guards the Balance, 1998
11. The Falcon at the Portal, 1999
12. He Shall Thunder in the Sky, 2000 (also titled He Shall Thunder in the Sky)
13. Lord of the Silent, 2001
14. The Golden One, 2002
15. Children of the Storm, 2003
16. Guardian of the Horizon, 2004
17. The Serpent on the Crown, 2005
18. Tomb of the Golden Bird, 2006
19. A River in the Sky, 2010
20. The Painted Queen, 2017 (with Joan Hess)

Reading note: Guardian of the Horizon (published as book 16) is set chronologically between books 10 and 11, as the story takes place during 1907-1908, which was skipped in the publication order. If you prefer reading your books in chronological order, read it after The Ape Who Guards the Balance. The Painted Queen (book 20) was partially completed by Elizabeth Peters before her death in 2013 and finished by Joan Hess.

Other Amelia Peabody Books

• Amelia Peabody’s Egypt: A Compendium, 2003 (co-edited with Kristen Whitbread)

Jaqueline Kirby Series

The Jacqueline Kirby series follows former librarian and current bestselling crime novelist Jacqueline Kirby, a confident and capable woman who find bodies in all sorts of improbable locations: a Roman temple, a medieval history convention, a Harlequin romance conference, or a small Appalachian town where a reclusive writer’s sequel has gone missing. The series includes four books and is lighter in tone than the Amelia Peabody series.

1. The Seventh Sinner, 1972
2. The Murders of Richard III, 1974
3. Die For Love, 1984
4. Naked Once More, 1989

Vicky Bliss Series

The Vicky Bliss series follows Dr. Victoria Bliss, an American art historian working at the National Museum in Munich, who get pulled into matters involving stolen or missing artworks, from medieval manuscripts, Trojan gold, to forged masterpieces across Germany, Sweden, Egypt, and other places around the world. The series has also a lighter, more adventure-driven feel than Amelia Peabody. It has romantic subplot involving the enigmatic Sir John Smythe, an art thief whose real identity and loyalties are never quite clear.

1. Borrower of the Night, 1973
2. Street of the Five Moons, 1978
3. Silhouette in Scarlet, 1983
4. Trojan Gold, 1987
5. Night Train To Memphis, 1994
6. The Laughter of Dead Kings, 2008

Reading note: The Camelot Caper, a standalone novel is often mentioned as part of the Vicky Bliss series. The two are unrelated except for the villain who was so liked by readers that the author later reincluded him in the series, and made him a good guy. But the two, the novel and the series, are otherwise completely unrelated.

Standalone Novels

• The Jackal’s Head, 1968
• The Camelot Caper, 1969 (also titled as Her Cousin John)
• The Dead Sea Cipher, 1970
• The Night of Four Hundred Rabbits, 1971 (also titled Shadows in the Moonlight)
• The Legend in Green Velvet, 1976 (also titled (Ghost in Green Velvet)
• Devil May Care, 1977
• Summer of the Dragon, 1979
• The Love Talker, 1980
• The Copenhagen Connection, 1982

Short Story Collections and Anthologies

• Into the Mummy’s Tomb, 1989
• Sisters in Crime, 1989
• Christmas Stalkings, 1991
• Malice Domestic 1, 1992
• The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits, 1993
• More Malice Domestic, 1997 (with Mary Higgins Clark)
• The Best of Sisters in Crime, 1997
• AZ Murder Goes… Artful, 2002
• The Mammoth Book of Egyptian Whodunnits, 2002
• The Locked Tomb Mystery: and Other Stories, 2018

Elizabeth Peters Biography

Elizabeth Peters was a bestselling American author and Egyptologist best known for her Amelia Peabody series.
Official website: barbaramertz.org

Elizabeth Peters, was the pen name of Barbara Louise Mertz, an American author and Egyptologist born on 29 September 1927 as Barbara Louise Gross, in Canton, Illinois. At the age of 13 an aunt took her to visit the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, and since then she became obsessed with archaeology and the Ancient Egypt.

She studied at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, earning a BA in 1947, an MA in 1950, and a PhD in Egyptology in 1952. During the school time, she studied with Egyptologist John A. Wilson. Academic positions in the field were difficult to find for women in postwar America, so under her real name, she wrote several non-fiction books on archaeology using her expertise in the field. Her popular histories Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs and Red Land, Black Land, both published under her own name, were in print for over thirty years and have been used by working Egyptologists as their first serious introduction.

She married Richard Mertz in 1950 and had two children, Elizabeth and Peter, which are the source of her pen name. However, she divorced him after 19 years of being together in 1969, when she started writing full-time. Her first mystery under the Barbara Michaels pseudonym was published in 1966, and her first one as Elizabeth Peters, The Jackal’s Head, was released next in 1968. Over the next four-plus decades she published 37 mystery-suspense novels as Elizabeth Peters and 29 gothic thrillers and supernatural thrillers as Barbara Michaels, not including her non-fiction.

The Amelia Peabody series, which launched with Crocodile on the Sandbank in 1975, became her main work, 20 books that combined genuine Egyptological accuracy with a strong and witty female character, and an ever growing family relationship. The Vicky Bliss and Jacqueline Kirby series were published alongside it. The Vicky Bliss series involves an art historian with her best knowledge about medieval Europe, who has a job at the Munich National Museum. All the cases she solves are related to art theft and other crimes. Jaqueline Kirby, is an ex-librarian, now a bestselling author who also solves crimes.

Over the years, Elizabeth Peters received numerous awards and was nominated for several others for her work in the mystery genre. In 1989, her book Naked Once More received the Agatha Award in the Best Novel category. The previous year, in 1988, the book Trojan Gold was nominated for an Anthony Award in the same Best Novel category. Her non-fiction book, Amelia Peabody’s Egypt: A Compendium, won the Agatha Award for the Best Non-Fiction Work in 2003.

Barbara Mertz was a founding member of Malice Domestic and a tireless advocate for women in crime writing. She lived in a historic farmhouse in Frederick, Maryland until her death on 8 August 2013, aged 85.

Elizabeth Peters / Barbara Mertz Awards and Honors

Awards

• Naked Once More – Agatha Award for Best Novel (1989)
• Amelia Peabody’s Egypt: A Compendium – Agatha Award for Best Non-Fiction (2003)
• Barbara Mertz – Grand Master, Bouchercon Anthony Awards (1986)
• Barbara Mertz – D.H.L. (honorary doctorate), Hood College (1989)
• Barbara Mertz – Grand Master, Mystery Writers of America (1998)
• Barbara Mertz – Lifetime Achievement Award, Malice Domestic Convention (2003)
• Barbara Mertz – inaugural Amelia Peabody Award, Malice Domestic Convention (2012)

Nominations and Shortlists

• Trojan Gold – Anthony Award for Best Novel (1988)
• The Last Camel Died at Noon – Agatha Award for Best Novel (1992)
• The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog – Agatha Award for Best Novel (1993)
• Night Train to Memphis – Agatha Award for Best Novel (1995)
• Seeing a Large Cat – Agatha Award for Best Novel (1998)
• The Ape Who Guards the Balance – Agatha Award for Best Novel (1999)
• Thunder in the Sky – Agatha Award for Best Novel (2001)
• Thunder in the Sky – Anthony Award for Best Novel (2001)
• The Golden One – Agatha Award for Best Novel (2003)
• Amelia Peabody’s Egypt: A Compendium – Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Work (2004)

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