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There's nothing more mysterious than a locked box. Whether it's a literal strongbox, an empty coffin, the inner workings of a scientist's mind, or an underground prison cell, there are those who will use any means necessary to unlock the secrets of The Mystery Box.

With this anthology, bestselling author Brad Meltzer introduces twenty-one original stories from today's most prominent mystery writers. In Laura Lippman's Waco 1982, a young reporter stuck with a seemingly mundane assignment on lost-and-found boxes unwittingly discovers a dark crime. In Joseph Finder's Heirloom, a scheming neighbor frightens the new couple on the block with an unnerving tale of buried treasure. In R. L. Stine's High Stakes, a man on his honeymoon gets drawn into a bizarre bet involving a coffin, a bet he may pay for with his life.

From the foothills of Mount Fuji to Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, from a physics laboratory in wartime Leipzig to an unusual fitness club in Boca Raton, these sometimes terrifying, sometimes funny, and always suspenseful tales will keep you riveted.

Jan Burke is the author of a dozen crime novels, including the popular Irene Kelly series, as well as a collection of short stories. She is the founder of the Crime Lab Project and is a member of the board of the California Forensic Science Institute. She lives in Southern California with her husband.

Tom Rob Smith graduated from Cambridge University in 2001 and lives in London. His first novel, Child 44, was a New York Times bestseller and an international success. Among its many honors, Child 44 won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He wrote the follow up to Child 44, The Secret Speech, in 2009, and the third installment in the series, Agent 6, was released in 2011. Smith lives in Central London.

Angela Gerst worked as a journalist, press secretary, and political consultant before beginning to write mysteries. Her first, A Crack in Everything, was published in 2011 by Poisoned Pen Press. She and her husband live a few miles outside of Boston surrounded by turkeys, coyotes, and other wildlife.

R. L. Stine's books have sold more than 300 million copies, making him one of the most popular children's authors in history. Besides Goosebumps, Stine has written other series, including Fear Street, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, the Nightmare Room, and Dangerous Girls. He lives in New York with his wife and his King Charles spaniel.

James O. Born is a former US drug and state law enforcement agent. Each of his crime novels is based on some aspect of his career. Escape Clause won the inaugural Florida Book Award for Best Novel.

Karin Slaughter is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of over a dozen thrillers, including the Will Trent and Grant County series. A longtime resident of Atlanta, she splits her time between the kitchen and the living room.

Libby Fischer Hellmann is a critically acclaimed crime writer loved by readers the world over for her compulsively readable thrillers and strong female characters. Her fast-paced crime fiction spans fourteen novels and over twenty short stories. She has also edited a popular crime fiction anthology called Chicago Blues. Libby's thrilling and richly varied crime novels have won numerous awards. Libby is exceptionally committed to her work, and in 2005-2006 she was the National President of Sisters in Crime, a 3,400+ member organization dedicated to strengthening the voice of female mystery writers.

Joseph Finder is the author of numerous New York Times bestselling novels, including Paranoia, Power Play, and Vanished. His international bestseller Killer Instinct won the International Thriller Writers's Thriller Award for Best Novel of 2006. Other bestselling titles include Paranoia and High Crimes, which both became major motion pictures. Born in Chicago, he studied Russian at Yale and Harvard. He was recruited by the CIA, but decided he preferred writing fiction. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

S. W. Hubbard is the author of the Frank Bennett Adirondack Mystery series and the Palmyrton Estate Sale Mystery series. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and the anthologies Crimes by Moonlight, The Mystery Box, and Adirondack Mysteries. She lives in Morristown, New Jersey, where she teaches creative writing to enthusiastic teens and adults, and expository writing to reluctant college freshmen.

Steve Berry is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of fourteen Cotton Malone and four stand-alone novels. He has over twenty-three million books in print, translated into forty languages. He is an emeritus member of the Smithsonian Libraries Advisory Board and a founding member of International Thriller Writers, formerly serving as its copresident.

Mystery Writers of America is the premier organization for mystery writers, professionals allied to the crime writing field, aspiring crime writers, and those who are devoted to the genre. MWA is dedicated to promoting higher regard for crime writing and recognition and respect for those who write within the genre. They provide scholarships for writers, sponsor symposia and conferences, present the Edgar Awards, and conduct other activities to further a better appreciation and higher regard for crime writing.

Brad Meltzer is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Inner Circle, The Book of Fate, and several other bestselling thrillers. In addition to his fiction, he is one of the only authors to ever have books on the bestseller list for nonfiction, advice, children's books, and even graphic books. He is also the host of Brad Meltzer's Decoded on the History Channel, and Brad Meltzer's Lost History on H2.

Laura Lippman is a New York Times bestselling novelist who has won more than twenty awards for her fiction, including the Edgar Award-and been nominated for thirty more. Since her debut in 1997, she has published twenty-one novels, a novella, a children's book, and a collection of short stories. Her books have been translated into over twenty languages. Laura lives in Baltimore with her husband, David Simon, and their daughter.

Jonathan Stone does most of his writing on the commuter train between the Connecticut suburbs and Manhattan, where he is the creative director of a midtown advertising agency. His novel Moving Day was selected as an Amazon Kindle First and has been optioned for film by Nick Wechsler and Steve Schwartz. Two of his short stories, Hedge and East Meets West, are anthologized in the Mystery Writers of America's recent annual collections. A graduate of Yale University, Stone is married and has two college-age children.

R. L. Stine is the creator of the bestselling Goosebumps series, which inspired the popular television show, as well as the Fear Street series and many other spooky tales for children. He has also written dozens of joke books for kids. His books have sold more than 400 million copies, making him one of the most popular children's authors in history.

Charles Todd is the New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries and the Bess Crawford mysteries. A mother-and-son writing team, they live on the East Coast.

William Dufris attended the University of Southern Maine in Portland-Gorham before pursuing a career in voice work in London and then the United States. He has won more than twenty AudioFile Earphones Awards, was voted one of the Best Voices at the End of the Century by AudioFile magazine, and won the prestigious Audie Award in 2012 for best nonfiction narration. He lives with his family in Maine.

Karen White is a classically trained actress who has been recording audiobooks since 1999. An Audie Award finalist, she has earned eight AudioFile Earphones Awards. Her reading of The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed was named one of AudioFile's Best Audiobooks of 2009.

Simon Vance is an award-winning actor and an AudioFile Golden Voice with over fifty Earphones Awards and thirteen prestigious Audie Awards. He was named Booklist's very first Voice of Choice in 2008 and an AudioFile Best Voice of 2009.

Joe Barrett, an actor and Audie Award and Earphones Award-winning narrator, has appeared both on and off Broadway as well as in hundreds of radio and television commercials.

Donald Corren is a stage, television, and voice actor whose work has been featured on and off Broadway, in regional theaters, behind animated characters, and on television for the past three decades. Trained in the theater division at Juilliard, he is also a writer whose credits include the original Martha Stewart Living television series and the medals ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Bernadette Dunne is the winner of more than a dozen AudioFile Earphones Awards and has twice been nominated for the prestigious Audie Award. She studied at the Royal National Theatre in London and the Studio Theater in Washington, DC, and has appeared at the Kennedy Center and off Broadway.

Malcolm Hillgartner is an accomplished actor, writer, and musician. Named an AudioFile Best Voice of 2013 and the recipient of several Earphones Awards, he has narrated over 175 audiobooks.

R. C. Bray is an award-winning audiobook narrator with over 180 titles to his credit. Besides winning five AudioFile Earphones Awards, he won the prestigious Audie Award in 2015 for Best Science Fiction Narration and has been an Audie Award finalist seven times. He has been a finalist for the Voice Arts Award, and in 2014, his narration earned a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award. He is also an accomplished producer and voice-over artist, and his voice can be heard in countless TV and radio commercials.

John McLain is an actor, professional voice talent, and Earphones Award-winning narrator. He has been a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. On stage, he has appeared in The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Amahl & the Night Visitors, and The Music Man.

Kirby Heyborne is a musician, actor, and professional narrator. Noted for his work in teen and juvenile audio, he has garnered over twenty Earphones Awards. His audiobook credits include Jesse Kellerman's The Genius, Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, and George R. R. Martin's Selections from Dreamsongs.

Paul Michael Garcia, an AudioFile Earphones Award winner and former company member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, received his classical training in theater from Southern Oregon University, where he worked as an actor, director, and designer.

Robert Fass is a veteran actor and twice winner of the prestigious Audie Award. He has earned multiple Earphones Awards, including for his narration of Francisco Goldman's Say Her Name, one of AudioFile magazine's Best Audiobooks of 2011.

Kathe Mazur has narrated many audiobooks, winning the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2014, being named a finalist for the Audie Award in 2013 and 2015, and winning several AudioFile Earphones Awards. As an actress, she can be seen as DDA Hobbs on The Closer and in the upcoming Major Crimes. She has worked extensively in film, theater, and television, including appearances on Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, House, Brothers and Sisters, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, ER, Monk, and many others.

Stephen Bowlby has worked as a professional voice actor for more than forty years. His experience spans animation, character work, commercials, and narration. He has read numerous audiobooks throughout his career, including titles by Harold Robbins, Stuart M. Kaminsky, John Sculley, William P. McGivern, and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.

Adam Verner is a stage, film, television, and voice actor and an Earphones Award-winning audiobook narrator. He holds a BS in theater arts from Bradley University and an MFA from Chicago College of the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

Gildart Jackson's acting credits span the stage and screen. He is most often recognized for his roles as Gideon on Charmed and Simon Prentiss on General Hospital. He has also starred in numerous television shows, including CSI and Vegas, and he played the lead in the highly acclaimed independent feature film You, directed by his wife, Melora Hardin.

Hillary Huber is one of the most successful voice talents in Los Angeles. Recent books read for Blackstone Audio include Him, Her, Him Again, the End of Him by Patricia Marx, A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read, and A Map of Glass by Jane Urquhart.

Jo Anna Perrin is an audiobook narrator whose readings include Disarming the Narcissist by Wendy T. Behary, You Lost Me There by Rosecrans Baldwin, American Freak Show by Willie Geist, and many others.