Barbara Mertz

Barbara Mertz, who has died aged 85, was a best-selling mystery writer who wrote dozens of novels under two pen names. She wrote more than 35 mysteries under the name Elizabeth Peters, including her most popular series about a daring Victorian archaeologist named Amelia Peabody. She also wrote 29 suspense novels under the pen name Barbara Michaels, and, under her own name, she wrote non-fiction books about ancient Egypt.

Born Barbara Louise Gross, Mertz grew up in small-town Illinois during the Depression and went to the University of Chicago on a scholarship, where, she wrote on her website: "I was supposed to be preparing myself to teach - a nice, sensible career for a woman."

But her true love was archaeology, and she soon found herself drawn to the department of Egyptology. She received a PhD at the age of 23.

In the post-Second World War era, she was not encouraged to enter the field. "I recall overhearing one of my professors say to another: 'At least we don't have to worry about finding a job for her. She'll get married'," she said.

She did and, while bringing up two children, decided to try her hand at mystery writing.

It was not until the family moved to Germany - and had the luxury of household help - that she wrote something which attracted an agent. She wrote two non-fiction books about Egypt under her own name before having her first work of fiction, The Master of Blacktower, published under the name Barbara Michaels.

"When my agent called to say I'd sold a novel, after I calmed down, she told me, 'You'll need a pen name'," Mertz said. Barbara Michaels became her pseudonym for a series of books in the supernatural, Victorian gothic genre.

"When I wrote a different kind, the publisher said I'd need another pseudonym," she said. "There's always the notion people are going to use the nasty word 'prolific' about you."

Under the Peters name - a combination of her children's first names - she produced several mystery series, including 19 books about Peabody. When the series began, with Crocodile on the Sandbank in 1975, Amelia pursued her adventures while pregnant. The series continued until her son, Ramses, was grown up.

"Between Amelia Peabody and Indiana Jones, it's Amelia - in wit and daring - by a landslide," Paul Theroux wrote in a New York Times appreciation.

Mertz described the character as a sentimental woman who solved mysteries by guessing but nonetheless thought of herself as logical: "I want to kick her sometimes."

As she wrote about her forceful heroine, Peters said she became more like her. Once, she said, "I was mealy mouthed, timid, never spoke up, let people push me around."

She divorced in the 1970s, but continued her fiction writing despite financial concerns.

In 1998, she received the Grandmaster Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mystery Writers of America, the top award from the mystery writers' group.

"It has taken me more than a quarter of a century to realise that I love to write, and that this is what I should have focused on from the beginning," she said.

She is survived by her children, Elizabeth and Peter, and six grandchildren.