Elizabeth Peters from AmeliaPeabody.com
I’ve been busy guest blogging, but I didn’t want to leave my look at gothic romantic suspense authors without touching on Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters.
I first discovered Elizabeth Peters when I was taking an archaeology class. I tend to do immersion thinking whenever I start something new, so along with studying and taking tests, I was reading histories, memoirs, biographies, anything I could find about Egypt, I listened to Egyptian music and read nonfiction and then stumbled onto a mystery series about a Victorian spinster, Amelia Peabody—mystery and Egypt— the best of all possible worlds—and the rest is history.
Since Crocodile on the Sandbank, I’ve stayed fascinated with Elizabeth Peters because besides the fact that I love her writing, she has made a successful career writing both mystery and romantic suspense, creating for each genre a distinct voice, and within her mysteries, both historical and contemporary.
Crocodile On the Sandbank Cover
I write in more than one genre and use more than one name, and I find that it can be exhausting, especially if everything happens to come due at once, and you’re spending your days alternating being inside different characters’ heads.
There are many writers who write under more than one name, but I have a special regard for Ms. Peters/Michaels/Mertz. Egyptology, mystery, romantic suspense, a few ghosts and malevolent forces, charming rogues and eccentric villains. And so many varieties of heroines and heroes, from the Victorian Amelia Peabody and her irascible but brilliant archeologist husband, Radcliff Emerson, to the flamboyant ex-librarian, Jacqueline Kirby, the blonde and intelligent Vicky Bliss and the endearing, slightly tongue in cheek and elusive, John Tregarth. (Who appears much earlier in a Barbara Michael’s romantic suspense, The Camelot Caper, and who is linked to the Emerson’s in the Vickie Bliss, The Laughter of Dead Kings.
The Camelot Caper
Which is another thing I really like about her writing. She always seems to be having so much fun. (Now, we all know this can’t be true. There have to be times surely that she worries a plot point or questions a motivation.)
And she is able to switch between humor and seriousness seemingly effortlessly. Some of her suspense stories are tragic, Stitches in Time in which past and present intertwine. And frightening. One of the scariest for me, is Ammie, Come Home, I’m not even sure why.
The Master of Blacktower
Then there are the gothics, Black Rainbow and The Master of Blacktower, Greygallows. Just thinking about them makes me want to read them all over again. Whether charming us, making us laugh, or scaring us senseless, her books are totally engaging.
What are your favorites? Mystery or suspense or both? Or maybe her nonfiction works?
I love MPM! And I love most of her books. It’s hard to single out one, or even a half dozen. That said, I do have a special fondness for Vicky and John, perhaps because “Night Train to Memphis” was the book I read first. “Ammie Come Home” is another favorite; the possession scene is one of the best I’ve ever read. And I like “Patriot’s Dream” a lot. And “Devil May Care” – the first chapter with Henry and Ellie is hysterically funny. “Witch” is great – love that the hero isn’t young or handsome or anything else – and “House of Many Shadows.” And of course Amelia Peabody – and Ramses – are awesome!
Gee, aren’t you glad you asked?
I’m really glad you commented. I loved Witch too. A little different. Loved Night Train and it’s play on country music and Schmidt was a hoot. I have a recorded book of Devil May Care that still makes me laugh.
I once interviewed her by phone for an article and she’s really a hoot! I love her books, whether the humorous Amelia Peabodys or the staright romantic suspense ones. My all time favorite by her: House of Many Shadows, which is romantic, spooky, and has a very unique twist on a ghost story!
At Malice Domestic one year she came into the bar where a bunch of us were sitting and talking. she held court and was hysterical and insightful. that was the year I think that Barbara Rosenblat who does the wonderful recorded Books versions of her books was also there. I still have cassettes of some of those books that haven’t made it to DC or audible.com. Do you remember The Crying Child?
One of the major reasons I explore different blog sites is to find new ways to enjoy my first and always love of reading. Yours always touches that central cord. Today you also introduced me to someone I obviously would love and for reasons I cannot explain, have yet to know.
Thanks for this post and for sharing Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels. Me? I do have a fondness for romantic suspense. Then again I also get a vicarious thrill from feisty women.
Then I think you’ll love her books. The mysteries are people with great characters, feisty and funny, and yet sincere. The romantic suspense are really suspenseful, with a good dose of attitude.
Ammie Come Home sent chills down my spine. I’ve always been a big fan. Daughter #1 devoured all the Elizabeth Peters’ books.
She’s a favorit ein our house too. Even my son when he was young (pre high school) read a few.
What a great subject to do research on I always loved the idea. Just never had any opportunity to dig rocks!
Great blog Shelly, I love characters with attitude!
I really love the idea of being an archeologist, except the realtiy of heat, dirt, bugs and worse, kept me an arm chair archeologist. Which works fine for me.
I discovered “Barbara Michaels” rather late, but she soon became one of my role models. I’d completed a contemporary ghost story that was at heart a mystery, not an Amityville Horror-type, violent haunting. At the time, I found very few other novels like that on the market (even though such stories were all over TV and the movies). I picked up a Barbara Michaels book and, lo, it was a mystery with actual ghosts and other paranormal elements! Though her books have relationships in them, they aren’t category romances but “cozies” with some chills. I’ve read most of the Barbara Michaels novels by now and am hoping to get to them all. I also like the Elizabeth Peters books, but the the spooky contemporaries are more my thing, since I write paranormal.
I think she succeeds so well with her ghosts and other worldlly creatures because she makes them so directly involved in the characters. and does’t just rely on the pyrotechnics of paranormal. They were so personal.