I’m so pleased to be visited at my blog this week by Kelly Oliver, a fellow author published by Level Best Books. Since I also read Elizabeth Peters’s books, I loved her take on this. Take it away, Kelly!

Last weekend I was on a panel at Malice Domestic Mystery Convention, to celebrate the legacy of one of my favorite mystery authors, Elizabeth Peters (Barbara Mertz 1927-2013). She received her PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago in 1952 and wrote three mystery series, Amelia Peabody, Vicky Bliss, and Jacqueline Kirby, along with scores of romance novels and nonfiction books on ancient Egypt.

I first discovered the Amelia Peabody series eighteen years ago when I moved to Nashville, and refused to get internet at home. Every Sunday, we went to the public library to use their computers and find audiobooks for entertainment. There, I found Elizabeth Peter’s Flacon at the Portal narrated by the amazing voice artist Barbara Rosenblatt. (Yes, sacrilege, I started in the middle of the series.) If you haven’t heard Barbara Rosenblatt narrate an audiobook, then you’re in for a real treat. She made the books come to life and I devoured the entire series. Listening to Amelia Peabody became my happy place. Amelia got me through a lot as I listened to the books over and over again, especially when I was stressed-out or blue.

I probably wouldn’t have become a mystery writer if I hadn’t discovered Amelia Peabody. Recently, I retired from my job as a philosophy professor at Vanderbilt so I could write mysteries fulltime.

Seven years ago, Amelia Peabody inspired me to write my first mystery novel. Wolf is based on my own experience in graduate school and is the first book in the Jessica James Mystery series.

But my real tribute to “Peabody,” as her husband affectionately calls her, is my character Fiona Figg. Part Amelia Peabody, part Miss Lemon, Fiona Figg is a British file clerk become spy in WW1. The latest in Fiona Figg Mystery, Covert in Cairo (book 5) is a homage to Amelia Peabody’s Egypt. Set in Cairo, Fiona and Kitty stay at Shepheard’s Hotel. I first discovered Shepheard’s through the Amelia Peabody series.

I love that Peabody is a strong-willed woman and proto feminist. She defies stereotypes and gives as good as she gets. The series has wry humor, quirky characters, and a light touch. Most especially, I appreciate Peters’s ability to write dramatic irony, which is not easy to do well. Dramatic irony is when the reader or audience knows something about the character that the character does not know about themselves. The full significance of the character’s words or actions are known to the reader but opaque to the character. For example, the central hook of the movie The Truman Show is dramatic irony where the audience knows Truman is living in a television show, but he thinks his life is real.

For example, Amelia Peabody abhors sentimentality. When something happens to her son Ramses, she might claim the tear in her eye is from a dust particle, but the audience knows it’s for her son. Inspired by Peters, I use dramatic irony in the Fiona Figg Mysteries. Witty and clever, Fiona is not the most self-aware character, especially when it comes to her romantic feelings about the men in her life. As the series develops, especially with Covert in Cairo (and the next two books in the series, Mayhem in the Mountains now in production, and Arsenic at Ascot just going to my editor), a love triangle—between handsome soldier Archie Somersby and Fiona’s charming nemesis Fredrick Fredricks—takes center stage.

In Covert in Cairo, following a tip-off from notorious spy Fredrick Fredricks, Fiona Figg and Kitty Lane of British Intelligence find themselves in the hustle and bustle of Egypt. But ancient mummies aren’t the only bodies buried in the tombs of Cairo.

When a young French archeologist is found dead in a tomb in the desert with his head bashed in, and an undercover British agent goes missing, the threat moves closer to home.

As they dig deeper, soon Fiona and Kitty uncover a treasure trove of suspects, including competing excavators, jealous husbands, secret lovers, and belligerent spies! Fiona wonders if the notorious Fredrick Fredricks could be behind the murders? Or is the plot even more sinister?

One thing is clear – If Fiona and Kitty can’t catch the killer, they might end up sharing a sarcophagus with Nefertiti.

With humor as dry as the Arabian desert, and pacing as fast as a spitting camel, Fiona and Kitty are back in another sparkling adventure, this time in WW1 Egypt.

Speaking of humor!

At Malice Domestic last weekend—along with other mystery-writing Peters fans, Gigi Pandian, Catriona McPherson, Dorothy St. James, and L.A. Chandlar—I was part of a skit, “The Case of the Missing Teapot,” at the banquet. I dressed up as Amelia Peabody, complete with pith helmet and tool belt. It was a blast. Here’s a picture of me in costume as my favorite cozy mystery character.

Thank you, Elizabeth Peters, for hours of entertainment AND inspiring me to write mysteries.

Kelly’s Latest cozy mystery:

Cairo. December 1917.

Following a tip-off from notorious spy Fredrick Fredricks, Fiona Figg and Kitty Lane of British Intelligence find themselves in the hustle and bustle of Egypt. But ancient mummies aren’t the only bodies buried in the tombs of Cairo.
When a young French archeologist is found dead in a tomb in the desert with his head bashed in, and an undercover British agent goes missing, the threat moves closer to home.
As they dig deeper, soon Fiona and Kitty uncover a treasure trove of suspects, including competing excavators, jealous husbands, secret lovers, and belligerent spies! Fiona wonders if the notorious Fredrick Fredricks could be behind the murders? Or is the plot even more sinister?
One thing is clear – If Fiona and Kitty can’t catch the killer, they might end up sharing a sarcophagus with Nefertiti.

Buy Links: 

Amazon URL:https://www.amazon.com/Covert-Cairo-Fiona-Kitty-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0BMF2YYQM

Barnes & Noble URL: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/covert-in-cairo-kelly-oliver/1142980902?ean=9781804831724

Kobo URL:https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/covert-in-cairo

Amazon CA:  https://www.amazon.ca/Covert-Cairo-murder-mystery-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0BMF2YYQM/

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Covert-Cairo-murder-mystery-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0BMF2YYQM

Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/Covert-Cairo-murder-mystery-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0BMF2YYQM

KOBO S Africa https://www.kobo.com/za/en/search?query=Fiona+Figg