This month’s featured writer is Barbara Mertz a.k.a. Elizabeth Peters, and a.k.a. Barbara Micheals her little known Vicky Bliss Series. Of course, we all know that she wrote the Amelia Peabody, Archeologists Mystery Series, which I have read over and over and love to read again at least once a year. I have probably read every single thing that this great writer has written beside her non-fiction books and my get to those sometime soon. Vicky Bliss is an older series that was hard to find in bookstores but has now been republished and offered in Kindle format on Amazon. You can still find them in used bookstores and online in paperback form. Barbara Mertz passed away in 2013 which was another sad day for us mystery readers.
“For those unfamiliar with Vicky Bliss, she is the hero of an Elizabeth Peters mystery series, an art historian with a specialty in medieval Europe who works at the National Museum in Munich. Her work brings her into the realm of brilliant artists and cold-blooded killers, forgers and art thieves, embroiling her in danger–and with one art thief, in particular–romance.”
Check out the author’s website at http://mpmbooks.com/vicky-bliss/
Read the Vicki Bliss Series
0.5 The Camelot Caper
“For Jessica Tregarth, an unexpected invitation to visit her grandfather in England is a wonderful surprise—an opportunity to open doors to a family past that have always been closed to her. But sinister acts greet her arrival. A stranger tries to steal her luggage and later accosts her in Salisbury Cathedral. Mysterious villains pursue her through Cornwall, their motive, and intentions unknown. Jessica’s only clue is an antique heirloom she possesses, an ancient ring that bears the Tregarth family crest. And her only ally is handsome gothic novelist David Randall—her self-proclaimed protector—who appears from seemingly out of nowhere to help her in her desperate—attempt to solve a five-hundred-year-old, puzzle. For something from out of the cloudy mists of Arthurian lore has come back to plague a frightened American abroad. And a remarkable truth about a fabled king and a medieval treasure could ultimately make Jess Tregarth very rich…or very dead. (Introducing Vicky Bliss)”
1. Borrower of the Night: A Vicky Bliss Novel of Suspense (Vicky Bliss Mysteries Book 1)
“Meet art historian Vicky Bliss, She is as beautiful as she is brainy–with unassailable courage, insatiable curiosity, and an expertise in lost museum treasures that often leads her into the most dangerous of situations.
A missing masterwork in wood, the last creation of a master carver who died in the violent tumult of the sixteenth century, may be hidden in a medieval German castle in the town of Rothenburg. The prize has called to Vicky Bliss, drawing her and an arrogant male colleague into the forbidding citadel and its dark secrets. But the treasure hunt soon turns deadly. Here, where the blood of the long forgotten damned stains ancient stones, Vicky must face two equally perilous possibilities. Either a powerful supernatural evil inhabits this place…or someone frighteningly real is willing to kill for what Vicky is determined to find.”
2. Street of the Five Moons: A Vicky Bliss Novel of Suspense (Vicky Bliss Mysteries Book 2)
“Vicky gasped at the sight of the exquisite gold pendant her boss at Munich’s National Museum held in his hand. The Charlemagne talisman replica, along with a note in hieroglyphs, was found sewn into the suit pocket of an unidentified man found dead in an alley.
Vicky vows to find the master craftsman who created it. It’s a daring chase that takes her all the way to Rome and through the dusty antique centers and moonlit streets of the most romantic city in the world. But soon she’s trapped in a treacherous game of intrigue that could cost her life — or her heart”
3. Silhouette in Scarlet: A Vicky Bliss Novel of Suspense (Vicky Bliss Mysteries Book 3)
“One perfect red rose, a one-way ticket to Stockholm and a cryptic “message” consisting of two Latin words intrigue art historian Vicky Bliss—as they were precisely intended to do.Beautiful, brilliant and, as always, dangerously inquisitive, Vicky recognizes the handiwork of her former lover, the daring jewel thief John Smythe. So she takes the bait, eagerly following Smythe’s lead in the hope of finding a lost treasure. But the trail begins at a priceless fifth-century chalice which will place Vicky at the mercy of a gang of ruthless criminals who have their eyes on an even more valuable prize. And the hunt threatens to turn deadly on a remote island, where a captive Vicky Bliss must lead an excavation into the distant past—and where digging too deep for the truth could dig her own grave.”
4. Trojan Gold: A Vicky Bliss Novel of Suspense (Vicky Bliss Mysteries Book 4)
“A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words, but the photograph art historian Vicky Bliss has just received gives rise to a thousand questions instead. A quick glance at the blood-stained envelope is all the proof she needs that something is horribly wrong. The picture itself is familiar: a woman adorned in the gold of Troy. Yet this isn’t the famous photograph of Frau Schliemann—no, this picture is contemporary. The gold, as Vicky and her fellow academics know, disappeared at the end of World War II. Now, this circle of experts is gathered for a festive Bavarian Christmas. All of them—including the mysterious John Smythe and a very determined killer.”
5. Night Train to Memphis (Vicky Bliss Mysteries Book 5)
“An assistant curator of Munich’s National Museum, Vicky Bliss is no expert on Egypt, but she does have a Ph.D. in solving crimes. So when an intelligence agency offers her a luxury Nile cruise if she’ll help solve a murder and stop a heist of Egyptian antiquities, all 5’11” of her takes the plunge. Vicky suspects the authorities really want her to lead them to her missing lover, the art thief and master of disguises she knows only as “Sir John Smythe.” And right in the shadow of the Sphinx, she spots him. . . with his new flame. Vicky is so furious at this romantic stab-in-the-back, not to mention the sudden arrival of her meddling boss, Herr Dr. Schmidt, that she may overlook a danger as old as the pharaohs and as unchanging. . . a criminal who hides behind a mask of charm while moving in for the kill.”
6. The Laughter of Dead Kings: A Vicky Bliss Novel of Suspense (Vicky Bliss Mysteries Book 6)
“New York Times bestselling Grand Master Elizabeth Peters—author of the thrilling fictional exploits of archaeologist Amelia Peabody in the Land of the Pharaohs—brings back beautiful, brainy art expert and sometime sleuth Vicky Bliss for one last adventure in The Laughter of Dead Kings. The incomparable Peters sends Vicky and her colorful entourage racing across modern-day Egypt to investigate the brazen theft of one the ancient desert land’s most priceless treasures. Smart, funny, evocative, and suspenseful, The Laughter of Dead Kings is a fond and fitting farewell to the ever-delightful Vicky…and a superior mystery fit for King Tutankhamen.”
