Elizabeth Peters (edit name/settings)

Elizabeth Peters is the author of over 25 mysteries, set everywhere from Victorian Age Egypt, to Rome in 1992, from Gothic mansions to townhouse apartments. The one element that connects them all are her strong, funny and extraordinarily likeable female characters.
Elizabeth Peters is also Barbara Michaels, author of more than 25 Romantic Suspense novels (these are a separate category from the "Romance Novels" you see in grocery stores with Fabio on the cover). Here again, we have creative, original women, but usually in circumstances more tinged with the Supernatural. Elizabeth Peters is also, and first, Barbara Mertz, a PhD of Egyptology who has written several non-fiction books about her field of expertise.
But where Barbara Mertz/Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters really shines is in her novels, where her knowledge and interest in a seemingly endless number of topics are added into her beautifully crafted stories, giving them an authenticity and intellectual feel that very few authors can create

Courtesy: http://www.angelfire.com/ut/westbound341/peters.html