The Dancing Floor » (Abridged)

Barbara Michaels (aka Elizabeth Peters, aka Barbara G. Mertz) studied at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, receiving an MA in 1950 and a PhD in Egyptology in 1952. In 1950 she married Richard Mertz and had two children, Elizabeth and Peter. She was divorced in 1969. A past president of American Crime Writers League, she presently serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt. She is also a member of the Egypt Exploration Society and the James Henry Breasted Circle of the Oriental Institute. Under her own name of Barbara Mertz, she is the author of Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt and Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt. Under her pseudonym as Barbara Michaels, she has written 29 novels of suspense. As Elizabeth Peters, she has produced 37 mystery-suspense novels, many of them set in Egypt and the Middle East. Dr. Mertz was awarded a DHL from Hood College in 1989. The Mystery Writers of America awarded her the MWA Grandmaster in 1998. She has also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Malice Domestic and the Grandmaster Award from Bouchercon.

For years, Heather Tradescant had dreamed of the journey she and her father would take to England - a pilgrimage to the great gardens of history. Now that her father is dead, Heather is determined to fulfill his dreams. Unfortunately, her request to see the fabled 17th-century garden of Troytan House is denied by the owner. Though unwelcome, she braves the walls of briars and reaches the Victorian manor house beyond. She senses a strange mission of evil lurking, tainting the manor's peaceful beauty. Only then does Heather begin to wonder whether it is only stories of long-vanished witchcraft that haunt Troytan House or whether there is some more modern horror, nearer at hand, and far, far more dangerous.

Continuing in the classic tradition she established with such acclaimed novels of suspense as Stitches in Time, Vanish with the Rose, and House of Stone, New York Times bestselling author Barbara Michaels has penned a chilling tale that will keep...

Library Journal

When Heather Tradescent agrees to help the lord of Trotyan House restore the grounds, she gets more than she bargained for: an unassailable maze, tales of witchcraft, and a nasty murder. From a popular author with six New York Times best sellers to her name.