Elizabeth Peters Books in Order (Amelia Peabody, Vicky Bliss, Jacqueline Kirby)

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All of Elizabeth Peters’ Books in Order!

Who is Elizabeth Peters?

Elizabeth Peters (1927-2013) is the pen name of American author and Egyptologist Barbara Mert – she received a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago in 1952. She was also known as Barbara Michaels when she wrote Gothic novels.

Peters is very well known for her work in mystery and suspense novels with a historical angle (like Egypt, of course), especially with the Amelia Peabody series, but also the Vicky Bliss Series about an art historian.

This article is only about her work published under the Elizabeth Peters name.

How to read Elizabeth Peters’ Books in Order?

The Amelia Peabody Series

The series tells the adventures of Egyptologist Amelia Peabody Emerson and her family-her distinguished husband Radcliffe Emerson, their son Ramses and, later, their ward Nefret-, mostly in Egypt with mummies, thieves, murderers, and all sorts of criminals.

For more information (and chronological reading order), go to our Amelia Peabody Reading Order.

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)
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)

The Vicky Bliss Series

The story focuses on Doctor Victoria Bliss, a beautiful art historian who specializes in medieval art and works for Herr Professor Anton Z. Schmidt at the National Museum in Munich. She has expertise in lost museum treasures that often leads her into the most dangerous of situations.

For more information, go to our Vicky Bliss Reading Order.

0. The Camelot Caper (1969)
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)

The Jacqueline Kirby Series

The adventures of Jacqueline Kirby, a Nebraska librarian who desperately desires some excitement and works as an amateur sleuth.

1. The Seventh Sinner (1972) – At first, Jean Suttman thought she had died and gone to Heaven when she was granted the opportunity to study in Rome. But the body that’s lying in the ancient subterranean Temple of Mithra-the murdered corpse of a repulsive and disliked fellow student-isn’t her idea of heavenly. Now she is truly frightened, not just because small “accidents” seem to be occurring around her with disturbing regularity. It’s the ever-increasing certainty that someone, for some unknown reason, is ruthlessly determined to do her harm. Jean’s innocent underground excursion into a sacred pagan place has trapped her in something dark and terrifying, and even the knowledge that practical, perceptive fellow American Jacqueline Kirby is on the case won’t ease her fears.
2. The Murders of Richard III (1974) – In a remote English manor house, modern admirers of the much-maligned King Richard III-one of Shakespeare’s most extraordinary villains-are gathered for a grand weekend of dress-up and make-believe murder. But the fun ends when the masquerade turns more sinister . . . and deadly. Jacqueline Kirby, on hand for the festivities, suddenly finds herself in the center of strange, dark doings . . . and racing to untangle a murderous puzzle before history repeats itself in exceptionally macabre ways.
3. Die for Love (1984) – The annual Historical Romance Writers of the World convention in New York City is calling to Jacqueline Kirby But all is not love and kisses at this august gathering of starry-eyed eccentrics and sentimental scribes. As far as Jacqueline is concerned, the sudden “natural” death of a gossip columnist seems anything but. And when she’s approached by a popular genre star who fears for her own life, the resourceful Ms. Kirby quickly goes back to work…as a sleuth.
4. Naked Once More (1989) – Seven years ago, the book Naked in the Ice skyrocketed Kathleen Darcy to instant fame. Now the author’s heirs are looking for a writer to pen the sequel. It’s an opportunity no novelist in her right mind would pass up, and there’s no doubting Jacqueline’s sanity…until she starts digging through the missing woman’s papers–and her past. Until she gets mixed up with Kathleen’s enigmatic lover. Until a series of nasty accidents convince her much too late that someone wants to bring Jacqueline’s story–and her life–to a premature end.

Other Novels by Elizabeth Peters

• The Jackal’s Head (1968) – Althea Tomlinson’s ostensible reason for returning to Egypt is to chaperone a spoiled teenager through this fabulous desert land. The truth is more complex . . . and dangerous. Ten years ago, something that happened here brought about her father’s ruin and subsequent death-and Althea intends to clear her disgraced parent’s name and finally lay a dark past to rest. But there are some mysteries best left buried in the shifting sands, and a devoted daughter’s search for answers is stirring up forgotten memories almost too painful to endure, that propel her onward among ancient tombs, legendary treasures, miraculous discoveries . . . and ever-closer to her own threatened doom.
• The Dead Sea Cipher (1970) – It was the start of a grand adventure in a land of antiquity, a rare opportunity to visit biblical places shrouded in mystery. But in a Jerusalem hotel room a world away from everything she knows, Dinah van der Lyn hears angry voices through the wall, followed by a crash and a brief cry in English…for help! The brutal shattering of an evening’s stillness becomes a prelude to terror. Without warning, Dinah has been unwittingly pulled into something unholy transpiring in a sacred city, and she must find answers hidden in the shadows. And she must trust an enigmatic stranger as she races through ancient, twisting streets teeming with secrets and peril, a man who may be leading her to safety…or to her doom.
• The Night of Four Hundred Rabbits (1971) – An unexpected “gift” has arrived for Carol Farley this Christmas: an envelope with no return address containing a newspaper clipping. Blurred but unmistakable is a photo of a man missing for years and feared dead-Carol’s father. It is a summons calling her to a world she has never known, to a place of ancient majesty and blood-chilling terror. Surrounded by towering pyramids on Mexico City’s Walk of the Dead, a frightened yet resolute young woman searches for a perilous truth and for the beloved parent she thought was gone forever. But there are dark secrets lurking in the shadows of antiquity, a conspiracy she never imagined . . . and enemies who are determined that Carol Farley will not leave Mexico alive.

• The Legend in Green Velvet (1976) – Scotland is Susan’s passion and obsession-and the opportunity to join a Highland dig is a dream come true for the young archaeology student. But then a sinister stranger slips Susan a cryptic message and is later found viciously slain. A mysterious peril has emerged from the mists to haunt Susan, sending her running for her life in the company of handsome, unconventional laird Jamie Erskine. For she has an unseen enemy hiding in the shadows-someone who, for some unknown reason, is going to great lengths to frame her for murder . . . and to bury Susan, if necessary, in this land she loves.
• Devil May Care (1977) – Ellie is young, rich, engaged and in love. These are the carefree days before marriage and new responsibility, and anything goes — including house-sitting at eccentric Aunt Kate’s palatial estate in Burton, Virginia. Ellie feels right at home here with the nearly invisible housekeepers and the plethora of pets, but she soon realizes that there are disturbing secrets about the local aristocracy buried in a dusty old book she has carried into the mansion. And her sudden interest in the past is attracting a slew of unwelcome guests — some of them living and some, perhaps not. And the terrible vengeance that Ellie and her friends seem to have aroused — now aimed at them — surely cannot be…satanic.
• Summer of the Dragon (1979) – A good salary and an all-expenses-paid summer spent a sprawling Arizona ranch is too good a deal for fledgling anthropologist D.J. Abbott to turn down. What does it matter that her rich new employer/benefactor, Hank Hunnicutt, is a certified oddball who is presently funding all manner of off-beat projects, from alien conspiracy studies to a hunt for dragon bones? There’s even talk of treasure buried in the nearby mountains, but D.J. isn’t going to allow loose speculation — or the considerable charms of handsome professional treasure hunter Jesse Franklin — to sidetrack her. Until Hunnicutt suffers a mysterious accident and then vanishes, leaving the weirdos gathered at his spread to eye each other with frightened suspicion.

• The Love Talker (1980) – Laurie has finally returned to Idlewood, the beloved family home deep in the Maryland woods where she found comfort and peace as a lonely young girl. But things are very different now. There is no peace in Idlewood. The haunting sound of a distant piping breaks the stillness of a snowy winter’s evening. Seemingly random events have begun to take on a sinister shape. And dotty old Great Aunt Lizzie is convinced that there are fairies about — and she has photographs to prove it. For Laurie, one fact is becoming disturbingly clear: there is definitely something out there in the woods — something fiendishly, cunningly, malevolently human — and the lives of her aging loved ones, as well as Laurie’s own, are suddenly at serious risk.
• The Copenhagen Connection (1982) – A strange twist of fate brings Elizabeth Jones face to face with her idol, the brilliant, eccentric historian Margaret Rosenberg, at the Copenhagen Airport. An even stranger accident makes Elizabeth the esteemed scholar’s new private assistant. But luck can go from good to bad in an instant — and less than twenty-four hours later, the great lady is kidnapped by persons unknown. Suddenly desperate in a foreign land, Elizabeth must cast her lot with Rosenberg’s handsome, insufferable son Christian in hopes of finding her vanished benefactor. On a trail that leads from modern wonders to an ancient mystery, a determined young woman and an arrogant “prince” must uncover shocking secrets carefully guarded in the beautiful Danish city. And they must survive a mysterious affair that is turning darker and deadlier by the hour.
• Mystery Stories (2018) – A thriller writer is embroiled in a real-life whodunit when a friend drops dead in front of her, with her own hatpin impaled in his back. The violation of a sealed West Bank tomb, its rock walls intact, provides a Thebes investigator with a mystifying conundrum. And two sisters take shelter from a storm in a shuttered old house at the end of a country road . . . only to discover they’re not alone. Settle in with this trio of short stories-available for the first time in a single volume-from one of the most popular mystery writers of all time.

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If you like Elizabeth Peters, you may want to check out our reading orders for Lilian Jackson Braun’s books or maybe Rhys Bowen’s books. Don’t hesitate to follow us on Twitter or Facebook to discover more book series.