Mystery Writers of America Presents T..., Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America Presents T..., Mystery Writers of America
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Synopsis

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.

About Mystery Writers of America

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.

About Brad Meltzer

Brad Meltzer is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of numerous bestselling suspense 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.

About Jan Burke

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.

About Laura Lippman

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 almost two dozen 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.

About Libby Fischer Hellmann

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.

About Joseph Finder

Joseph Finder is the author of numerous New York Times bestselling novels, including. His novel Killer Instinct won the International Thriller Writers’s Thriller Award for Best Novel of 2006. Other bestselling titles include Paranoia and High Crimes, both of which 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.

About James O. Born

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.

About S. W. Hubbard

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.

About Tom Rob Smith

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.

About Steve Berry

Steve Berry is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of nineteen Cotton Malone novels, five stand-alone thrillers, two Luke Daniels adventures, and several works of short fiction. He has over twenty-six million books in print, translated into forty-one languages. With his wife, Elizabeth, he is the founder of History Matters, an organization dedicated to historical preservation. He serves as an emeritus member of the Smithsonian Libraries Advisory Board and was a founding member of International Thriller Writers, formerly serving as its co-president.

About Angela Gerst

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.

About Charles Todd

Charles Todd is the New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries, the Bess Crawford mysteries, and two stand-alone novels. Originally a mother-and-son writing team, Caroline passed away in August 2021. Their novel Proof of Guilt was a New York Times bestseller, and A Test of Wills was named one of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association’s 100 favorite mysteries of the twentieth century and was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Their novels have won the Agatha Award, the Barry Award, and the Anthony Award, as well as being finalists for several other awards. Charles is continuing the series.

About Jonathan Stone

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.

About Katherine Neville

Katherine Neville was a global executive in data processing, and was a vice president of the Bank of America for many years. As an international consultant, she delivered computer systems for corporations and governments around the world. She was for some years a commercial photographer, professional model, and painter.

About R. L. Stine

R. L. Stine has more than 400 million English-language books in print, plus international editions in thirty-two languages, making him one of the most popular children’s authors of all time. Besides Goosebumps, he has written series including Fear Street, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, the Nightmare Room, Dangerous Girls, and Just Beyond. Stine lives in New York City with his wife, Jane, a former editor and publisher.

About Karin Slaughter

Karin Slaughter is one of the world's most popular storytellers. She is the author of more than twenty instant Sunday Times bestselling novels, including the Edgar-nominated Cop Town. She is an international bestseller, with her novels published in 120 countries with more than forty million copies sold across the globe. Pieces of Her is now a #1 Netflix original series starring Toni Collette, Will Trent is now a television series starring Ramon Rodríguez on ABC, and further projects are in development for television. She is the founder of the Save the Libraries project, a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming.

About William Dufris

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.

About Karen White

Karen White has been narrating audiobooks of all genres since 1999. Honored to be included in AudioFile’s Best Voices, she’s also a four-time Audie Finalist and has earned multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards and Library Journal starred reviews.

About Simon Vance

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.

About Malcolm Hillgartner

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 250 audiobooks.

About Scott Brick

Scott Brick, an acclaimed voice artist, screenwriter, and actor, has performed on film, television, and radio. He attended UCLA and spent ten years in a traveling Shakespeare company. Passionate about the spoken word, he has narrated a wide variety of audiobooks. winning won more than fifty AudioFile Earphones Awards and several of the prestigious Audie Awards. He was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine and the Voice of Choice for 2016 by Booklist magazine.

About John McLain

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.

About Kirby Heyborne

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.

About Richard Powers

Richard Powers has published thirteen novels. He is a MacArthur Fellow and received the National Book Award. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory, and Bewilderment was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

About Joe Barrett

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.

About Donald Corren

Donald Corren is an audiobook narrator and a New York actor with leading credits on and Off-Broadway, as well as numerous television appearances. On Broadway, he costarred with Judy Kaye in the critically acclaimed production of Souvenir, and replaced Harvey Fierstein in the seminal production of Torch Song Trilogy. His Off-Broadway appearances include The Soap Myth, Dietrich & Chevalier, The Last Sunday in June, Stephen Sondheim’s Saturday Night, and the original New York production of Tomfoolery. His television credits include eight seasons as forensic tech Medill on NBC’s Law & Order, as well as his current role as Dr. Kurian on Syfy’s Z Nation.

About Bernadette Dunne

Bernadette Dunne is the winner of numerous 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.

About R. C. Bray

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.

About Robert Fass

Robert Fass is a veteran actor and twice winner of the prestigious Audie Award for the year’s best narration. He has earned many Earphones Awards and AudioFile magazine “Best of the Year” accolades.

About Kathe Mazur

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.

About Stephen Bowlby

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.

About Adam Verner

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.

About Gildart Jackson

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.

About Hillary Huber

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.

About Jo Anna Perrin

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.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Glen on October 25, 2017

An anthology with the theme that each story has to feature a mystery box of some kind. I wasn't too thrilled with any of the stories, to tell the truth. As a whole, they were very predictable. even though there were some fairly prominent authors involved. Maybe the editor should have been more invol......more

Goodreads review by Lbaker on August 07, 2013

Overall the authors used a box in a key part of the story, but some did not, which was annoying. The Amiable Miss Edith Montague by Jan Burke - liked, though was a little confused on why the victim would have allowed the protagonist to see the contents of the box - 4 stars. Waco 1982 by Laura Lippman......more

Goodreads review by Jim on February 04, 2019

This was an excellent collection of short stories, each featuring a box. It was interesting how many ways there were to work one in & yet still keep a fine story. While some were certainly more to my taste than others, overall they were excellent. Each & every one was very well narrated, too. A few......more