If not for Elizabeth Peters, I doubt I would have become a mystery novelist. I discovered her Vicky Bliss novels when I was a teenager, and they were the perfect blend of mystery, adventure, humor, and romance. I already loved mysteries—starting with Scooby Doo, up through Encyclopedia Brown, Trixie Belden, and the Three Investigators, and onto classic mysteries on my mom’s bookshelves—but Elizabeth Peters’ novels were amazing. I wanted to be art historian Vicky Bliss, running around haunted castles with a handsome jewel thief. Well, last weekend, I did get to be Vicky—at least on stage.
Malice Domestic, the traditional mystery convention, is held each spring in Bethesda, Maryland. Elizabeth Peters (the pen name for Egyptologist Barbara Mertz) was one of the founders of the convention. She passed away a decade ago, and this year, Malice Domestic honored her memory with several events. I was involved in organizing a panel on the Legacy of Elizabeth Peters, and also a skit at the banquet: “The Case of the Missing Teapot.”
I and so many mystery authors were inspired by Elizabeth Peters to become writers, because her books are a perfect combination of mystery, adventure, romance, and humor. So when I learned that Elizabeth Peters was the “Malice Remembers” Guest of Honor, I gathered together a group of authors, all of whom are fellow super-fans, for a panel to discuss the legacy of her work on the next generation of traditional mystery authors. An overlapping group of authors also joined me in playing her characters in a skit at the Agatha’s banquet.
In the skit, Catriona McPherson played our ringmaster who summoned some “Malice magic” to bring Elizabeth Peters’ most famous sleuths to the stage: Amelia Peabody, Vicky Bliss, and Jacqueline Kirby—and also Nefret Emerson and Ramses from the Amelia Peabody novels.
Kelly Oliver played Amelia Peabody, L.A. Chandlar was Nefret Emerson, Dorothy St. James was Jacqueline Kirby, and I was Vicky Bliss. John Copenhaver gave a cameo appearance as Ramses. Huge thanks to all of them!
Gigi Pandian’s glamorous art historian Vicky Bliss. Dorothy St. James’ librarian-turned-romance-writer Jacqueline Kirby. Laurie Chandlar’s animal-loving Victorian doctor Nefret Emerson. Kelly Oliver’s intrepid Victorian Egyptologist Amelia Peabody—with a parasol!
Do you recognize me dressed as Vicky Bliss?
While we were all gathering off-stage, Catriona frantically asked, “But where’s Gigi?” I was laughing so hard that I nearly couldn’t go on stage.
Kelly Oliver as Amelia Peabody, L.A. Chandlar as Nefret Emerson, Dorothy St. James as Jacqueline Kirby, and Gigi Pandian as Vicky Bliss.
In “The Case of the Missing Teapot,” our sleuths used their expertise to look for a missing Agatha teapot. Since Vicky is an art historian, she found a teapot in an illuminated manuscript. Individually, our discoveries were meaningless. But together, clues found on the back of our teapots spelled out R A M S E S. Ramses! He was hidden in the audience.
Ringmaster Catriona McPherson putting the teapot clues together.
In addition to those events, Crippen & Landru published an excerpt of Elizabeth Peters’ unpublished memoirs for attendees, Egyptologist Salima Ikram appeared in conversation with Beth Mertz (EP’s daughter), and beloved audiobook narrator Barbara Rosenblat did a reading at the closing tea.
Beth Mertz in conversation with Salima Ikram, sharing memories (hilarious stories!) of Elizabeth Peters.
Elizabeth Peters’ daughter and several members of the family attended the convention to see the events in her honor, and I had the privilege of visiting the house where Elizabeth Peters (aka Barbara Mertz) lived for many years, including taking this photo at the desk where she wrote so many of her novels! Yes, that was an incredibly special visit!
Sitting at the very desk where Elizabeth Peters wrote her novels! Yes, I’m dying.
If you aren’t familiar with Elizabeth Peters and her books, I highly recommend you check them out. You can read more about her here on her website, and I’ll be doing future blog posts about her books (here’s the first one).
In addition to celebrating Elizabeth Peters, there were so many other wonderful memories from the weekend. Here are just a few:
My writers group meets virtually once a week, but at Malice we were able to get together in person! Diane Vallere, Lisa Q. Mathews, Ellen Byron, and I formed a virtual group when the pandemic began, to hold each other accountable for upcoming book deadlines, but the group discussions flourished, so we couldn’t imagine stopping our weekly virtual meetings. These women are instrumental in helping me get my books written!
The Fearless Foursome writers group: Diane Vallere, Gigi Pandian, Lisa Q. Mathews, and Ellen Byron.
I didn’t remember to take nearly as many photos as I should have, since my personality is to be focused on what I’m doing rather than remembering to take photos. Thank you to all of the readers who said hello and asked me to sign your books! It was so much fun chatting with readers, writers, old friends, and new friends, about all things mystery.
Publishers attend conventions since it’s a good way to see lots of their authors, so I was able to share meals with my Minotaur Books team (they publish my Secret Staircase Mysteries), Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (they published “The Locked Room Library”), and Crippen & Landru (I’ve contributed to their Golden Age of detective fiction story collections).
To top off the already fabulous weekend, my dear friend and conference roommate, Diane Vallere, won an Agatha Award for her work as editor of Promophobia, a nonfiction book for writers she created as a project while president of Sisters in Crime. Yay!
Thank you to the Malice Domestic board of directors and all the volunteers who make this such a wonderful convention — I’m already looking forward to next year’s Malice Domestic!
May 7 update: After writing this post, I also wrote a post about Elizabeth Peters and her books, including a selected list of her books and suggestions for where to start reading.