Somewhere, the Emerson family is mourning

[annathepiper]

Oh, sadness. I just saw the news that Barbara Mertz, better known to the world as Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters, has passed away.

This one hurts, folks. Ms. Mertz, as many of you know, was a huge formative influence on both my reading as an adolescent and my writing once I began to put stories together myself. She was my gold standard for how to create memorable, vivid leading characters, and especially, in the case of the Amelia Peabody series, how to make a married couple have a dynamic relationship over many, many novels.

I have every single one of her novels under both her pen names, and I’ve adored every one. Not only the Emersons (and oh god Ramses! And Nefret! And so, so many wonderful cats!), but also her Vicky Bliss series and her many wonderful standalone suspense/Gothic novels written as Barbara Michaels.

Many condolences to her family and loved ones, and to all of you who loved her novels as much I do.

ETA: Here’s another, longer story on her from CBS News.

ETA #2: CriminalElement.com has a post up about her passing, now.

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

Comments

[mmegaera]

She was one of my biggest influences, too, and one of my alltime favorite writers (I read my first book of hers as an adolescent, forty years ago).

The Amelia books were a tour de force, and her gothics were wonderful.

[annathepiper]

The entire Ramses/Nefret love story resolution: GOLD.

Search the Shadows, Into the Darkness, and the sort of loose unofficial trilogy of Ammie Come Home, Shattered Silk, and Stitches in Time are among my favorite Michaels.

*sniff*

[mmegaera]

My only gripe with the Amelia books is that Nefret needed a better agent for The Falcon at the Portal. I did feel that she got a bit jerked around by the plot in that one. But it set up the uber-romance of He Shall Thunder in the Sky so I've pretty much forgiven that [g]. What still amazes me is how she took Ramses from the most obnoxious (and I mean that in the nicest possible way) little boy on the planet to incredible heartthrob, all without compromising his character one bit.

My favorites of the gothics are Ammie, Come Home (wasn't as fond of the other two books in that set), which was the first one of hers I ever read, in a Reader's Digest Condensed Book (it was very odd, all that stuff that was in the book that I didn't remember when I went back to reread it from the library in my twenties [g]), House of Many Shadows (no, not just because the heroine is named Meg), and The Crying Child. And Witch. And Wait For What Will Come. And, and, and...

[annathepiper]

I am totally right there with you on The Falcon at the Portal. When I originally read it, I was very, VERY much AUGH. But then, yeah, He Shall Thunder in the Sky. About which I have all the love in the world!

I have a healthy respect for Ammie Come Home, yeah. I liked how there were two budding couples, the younger one and the older one, and how all of them were very distinct characters. But Michaels was always a mistress of distinct and vivid characters!