Below is the complete list of Elizabeth Peters books in order. For each series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Jacqueline Kirby Books
Publication Order of Vicky Bliss Books
Publication Order of Amelia Peabody Books
Publication Order of Standalone Books
Publication Order of Short Story Collections Books
- Mystery Stories (2018)
Mystery Stories was published in 2018 and is listed as book #1 in the Short Story Collections series. 
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
Publication Order of Barbara Mertz Short Story Collections Books
About Elizabeth Peters
Elizabeth Peters was the principal mystery-writing name of Barbara Mertz, an American novelist and trained Egyptologist whose fiction combined historical knowledge, intricate plotting, romantic adventure, and dry comedy. She created three major series—Amelia Peabody, Vicky Bliss, and Jacqueline Kirby—while also publishing standalone mysteries. Under her real name, she wrote accessible nonfiction about ancient Egypt, and as Barbara Michaels she produced darker novels of gothic and supernatural suspense.
Born Barbara Louise Gross in Canton, Illinois, in 1927, Mertz became fascinated by ancient Egypt after visiting the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute as a child. She later studied there, receiving her bachelor’s degree in 1947, master’s degree in 1950, and doctorate in Egyptology in 1952. At a time when academic opportunities for women in the field were limited, she redirected her expertise toward writing rather than pursuing a conventional university career.
Her nonfiction books published as her expertise toward writing rather than pursuing Barbara Mertz include Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs, a lively history of ancient Egypt and its rediscovery, and Red Land, Black Land, an account of daily life along the Nile. These works demonstrated the qualities that later distinguished her historical mysteries: command of archaeological detail, respect for evidence, impatience with romanticized misconceptions, and an ability to make scholarship entertaining without reducing its complexity.
Mertz began publishing fiction under the name Barbara Michaels, using it mainly for suspense novels involving old houses, family secrets, apparent hauntings, psychic disturbances, and women confronting dangers dismissed by more conventional authorities. The Elizabeth Peters name, formed from the names of her children Elizabeth and Peter, became associated with lighter, more openly comic mysteries featuring educated, independent heroines.
Jacqueline Kirby, a sharp-tongued librarian who later becomes a successful romance novelist, was the first recurring Peters protagonist. Her cases place an observant outsider inside closed intellectual or social communities, including a group fascinated by Richard III and a gathering of romance writers. Art historian Vicky Bliss followed, pursuing stolen antiquities, concealed treasures, and historical puzzles across Europe. Her unpredictable relationship with charming thief John Smythe gives the series a continuing mixture of attraction, rivalry, and mistrust.
Peters’s defining creation was Amelia Peabody, introduced in Crocodile on the Sandbank. A financially independent Victorian woman with strong opinions, archaeological ambitions, and confidence in her own deductions, Amelia travels to Egypt and becomes involved with Egyptologist Radcliffe Emerson. Their marriage, excavations, children, colleagues, and recurring enemies develop across a series extending from the 1880s into the years surrounding the First World War and the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.
The Amelia Peabody novels combine murder mystery with family saga and historical adventure. Peters uses her knowledge of excavation practices, ancient Egyptian culture, and the politics of archaeology while also satirizing imperial attitudes and Victorian conventions. Amelia’s narration is knowingly unreliable: she records her courage and judgment with absolute certainty, while the reactions of other characters frequently reveal how much she has misunderstood or exaggerated.
Mertz died in 2013, leaving The Painted Queen partially completed. Her friend and fellow mystery writer Joan Hess finished the manuscript for posthumous publication. Peters received major recognition throughout her career, including Grand Master honors from the Anthony Awards and Mystery Writers of America. Her bibliography is best understood by separating the scholarly books written as Barbara Mertz, the gothic suspense published as Barbara Michaels, and the witty historical and contemporary mysteries that made Elizabeh Peters her most enduring literary identity.