A writer so popular that the public library has to keep her books under lock and key.Washington Post Book World

Dinah Van der Lyn heard the cries for help through her hotel room wall, cries in English in the middle of Beirut. Help was the only English word spoken. She thought the men were simply drunk and fighting. Her mistake was the first step on an odyssey of terror that would take Dinah to the fabled cities of Sidon, Tyro, Damascus, and then Jerusalem, racing through the twisting streets, not knowing if the man she was following would lead her to safety or into a deadly trap.

Elizabeth Peters, whose New York Times best-selling novels are often set against historical backdrops, earned a Ph.D. in Egyptology at the University of Chicago. She also writes best-selling books under the pseudonym Barbara Michaels. She lives in Frederick, Maryland.