I thought the characterization in Fair Coin was one of its strong points.
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Barbara Mertz (Elizabeth Peters) died today: [link] Her kids were named Elizabeth and Peter!
Aw, sad. I really liked some of her Barbara Michaels books, as well as Amelia Peabody. Shattered Silk was the first thing I read by her and is probably still my favorite.
That's sweet how she got her pen name from her kids' names.
I loved The Crying Child, although that might have been the only one I read. I've been saving the Amelia Peabody books for a mystery dry spell.
Farewell, beloved writer!
Oh, man, I read a bunch of the Amelia Peabody books a couple of years ago, and stalled out after the 6th one (or thereabouts). Good stuff.
I never finished the series. I suppose I might at some point.
And The Crying Child is new to me. Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters are always good names to look for in used bookstores because there are just so many that I haven't gotten to yet, it's decent odds I'll be able to find something I haven't read before.
Oh, that's too bad. I read quite a few of her books, under both names, and quite enjoyed most.
My favorite thing about the Elizabeth Peters books might be her explanation that she wanted to read a Victorian adventure with a swashbuckling heroine and wasn't finding any, so she wrote one. That's a motivation I can appreciate.
I prefer the Elizabeth Peters because they have more of a sense of humor. The Barbara Michaels tends to fall into gothic romance traps, which annoy me now that I am old.