This year has had a little something for everyone when it comes to books — fans of romantasy, science fiction, horror, and young adult fiction have plenty to choose from every time they visit their local bookstores.

But mystery readers are really in for a treat. There has been a bumper crop of whodunits, thrillers, and crime novels for those who prefer to read on the edge of their seat. And the year’s not over yet — high-profile books from crime fiction titans Michael Connelly, Attica Locke, Richard Price, and Paula Hawkins are all on the horizon.

We’ve collected 20 promising books covering all types of mysteries and thrillers — some out now, some coming soon. If you’re looking for an engrossing read that might just scare you a little, check these out — just remember to lock your door if you’re reading at night.

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, “Angel of Vengeance”

Preston and Child have collaborated on more than 30 books ever since their debut novel, “Relic,” was published in 1995. Their latest sees the return of their popular character Aloysius Pendergast, an FBI agent who this time is on the trail of a New York serial killer — who happens to be Pendergast’s ancestor.

Scott Phillips, “The Devil Raises His Own”

Phillips is best known for his historical noir fiction set in the American West, and his latest novel finds him training his eye on the Silent Era of Hollywood. The book follows an L.A. photographer in 1916 who finds himself entangled in the nascent porn industry; a series of murders complicates his life as well as that of his granddaughter, who has moved to the city from Kansas after killing her abusive husband.

Seishi Yokomizo, translated by Bryan Karetnyk, “The Little Sparrow Murders”

The British publisher Pushkin Press puts out some of the highest-quality crime fiction under its Pushkin Vertigo imprint. One of their latest comes from the late Japanese author Yokomizo, and tells the story of a detective summoned to a remote mountain town to investigate a (very) cold case, and who stays once he learns that a new series of slayings is taking place.

Hansen Shi, “The Expat”

Readers who love a good spy novel might want to reach for this one by venture capitalist Shi — it follows Michael Wang, a young Princeton graduate working a tech job at General Motors, who is headhunted by Vivian, a woman who invites him to come work in China. When Michael travels to Beijing, Vivian is nowhere to be found, and he realizes he might be entangled in something much bigger than he bargained for.

M.T. Anderson, “Nicked”

Anderson is best known for his novels for younger readers (“Feed,” “The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party”), but he has a grown-up audience in mind for this one. His latest book is a heist story, set in the 11th century and follows Nicephorus, a naive Italian monk who is talked into joining a plot to steal the bones of St. Nicholas.

P.J. Tracy, “City of Secrets”

Crime fiction fans have fallen for Margaret Nolan, the LAPD detective who starred in Tracy’s novels “Deep Into the Dark,” “Desolation Canyon,” and “The Devil You Know.” She returns in Tracy’s latest, which finds the detective investigating what looks to be a carjacking-turned-murder — but that’s just the tip of a very dark iceberg.

Leonie Swann, translated by Amy Bojang, “Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime”

German author Swann brings the cozy in this follow-up to her mystery novel “The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp.” This one sees the return of the titular woman and her fellow elderly housemates as they attempt to solve a possible murder in a fancy Cornwall hotel.

Kate Atkinson, “Death at the Sign of the Rook”

Literary novelist Atkinson is hard to pin down when it comes to genre, but her books featuring detective Jackson Brodie are unabashedly mysteries — and undeniably fun. In her latest, something of an homage to Agatha Christie, Brodie uncovers a series of art thefts in Yorkshire that leads him to something even more sinister.  

Kwei Quartey, “The Whitewashed Tombs”

Emma Djan, the Ghanaian private investigator featured in three of Quartey’s previous novels, returns in his latest. This time, she’s investigating the murder of an LGBTQ+ activist in Accra; her investigation leads her to a group that is trying to make homosexuality illegal in several African countries.

Richard Osman, “We Solve Murders”

British author Osman scored a series of bestsellers with his cozy “Thursday Murder Club” series of novels (the first of which is headed to the big screen, courtesy of Steven Spielberg). He’s kicking off a new series with this novel, about a retired detective who works with his security officer daughter-in-law after she learns that she’s been targeted for murder.

M. Waggoner, “The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society” (Sept. 24)

Readers who enjoy a little paranormal mixed in with their mysteries should take a look at this novel, which follows a small-town librarian who realizes that a string of murders in her village might be the result of something demonic. (The possession of her cat, Lord Thomas Crowell, also clues her into the malevolent spirits.) She enlists a priest and a group of townspeople to investigate what’s really going on

Marissa Stapley, “The Lightning Bottles” (Sept. 24)

The latest from “The Last Resort” and “Lucky” author takes readers back to the 1990s grunge era. The novel follows Jane Pyre, who founded the titular band with her then partner Elijah Hart, who has since disappeared. Jane moves to Germany, where a teenage fan insists that Elijah is still alive and waiting to be found. Mystery fans who also love Taylor Jenkins Reid’s “Daisy Jones & the Six” will find much to admire here.

Ramona Emerson, “Exposure” (Oct. 1)

Emerson was longlisted for the National Book Award for her debut “Shutter,” which introduced readers to the New Mexico forensic photographer Rita Todacheene. In this follow-up, Rita is called in to help with the investigation of a serial killer who is targeting Native victims in the city of Gallup.

Lauren Ling Brown, “Society of Lies” (Oct. 1)

Brown, a film editor living in L.A., makes her literary debut with this suspense novel about Maya, who returns to her alma mater of Princeton to see Naomi, her little sister, graduate. When Naomi turns up dead, Maya suspects a secret society at the Ivy League school might have something to do with it.

Sarah Sawyer, “The Undercurrent” (Oct. 8)

In Sawyer’s debut novel, a Maine woman named Bee is trying to navigate her postpartum depression when a childhood friend makes a reappearance and leads her to travel back to her Texas home, where she becomes obsessed with the disappearance of a girl from her town. “Gone Girl” author Gillian Flynn calls this one “stunning.”

Delilah S. Dawson, “It Will Only Hurt for a Moment” (Oct. 22)

Arriving just in time for Halloween — yes, spooky season is coming soon — Dawson’s novel follows Sarah Carpenter, a woman who leaves behind her ex-boyfriend and mother to make pottery at an artists’ colony. Things get dicey when she discovers a body of a young woman, and her fellow artists start acting unusually.

Sydney Graves, “The Arizona Triangle” (Oct. 22)

Kate Christensen is well known to literary fiction fans as the author of well-received novels like “In the Drink” and “The Great Man.” Now she’s turning her talents to crime fiction — her new novel, written under the pseudonym Sydney Graves, follows a Tucson, Arizona, detective looking for her missing, estranged best friend from childhood.

Tod Goldberg, editor, “Eight Very Bad Nights: A Collection of Hanukkah Noir” (Oct. 29)

Indio-based author Goldberg is one of the best (and funniest) crime writers working today, so it makes sense that publisher Soho put him in charge of this Hanukkah-themed short story anthology. Contributors include authors Ivy Pochoda, David L. Ulin, Jim Ruland, Gabino Iglesias, Liska Jacobs and Goldberg’s novelist brother Lee, all of whom are likely to serve up thrills alongside your latkes.

Christina Lynch, “Pony Confidential” (Nov. 5)

Champing at the bit for a mystery with an equine hero? Look no further than the latest from College of the Sequoias professor Lynch, which tells the story of a pony determined to prove that her old (human) friend Penny didn’t commit a murder that she’s been accused of. With Penny languishing in jail, Pony can’t afford to horse around.

Lou Berney, “Double Barrel Bluff” (Nov. 5)

The sixth book from award-winning author Berney (“Gutshot Straight,” “November Road,” “Dark Ride”) brings back his character Shake Bouchon. In this latest one, the former L.A. mob wheelman has moved to Indiana, but he agrees to travel to Cambodia to track down a mob boss who also happens to be his ex-girlfriend.

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Ashley Lee | (TNS) Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Some of the high notes of the upcoming movie calendar are the many musicals heading to the screen: Warner Bros.’ Joaquin Phoenix-Lady Gaga starrer “Joker: Folie à Deux” (Oct. 4), Netflix’s tuneful crime drama “Emilia Pérez” (in limited release Nov. 1), Universal’s adaptation of the Broadway musical “Wicked” (Nov. 22), Netflix’s princess quest “Spellbound” (Nov. 22), Disney’s animated “Moana 2” (Nov. 27) and a CGI prequel, “Mufasa: The Lion King” (Dec. 20).

And this lengthy list doesn’t yet include buzzy music-related movies now on the fall film festival circuit that still might nab release dates in the coming months: Pablo Larraín’s Maria Callas biopic “Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie, Joshua Oppenheimer’s apocalyptic feature “The End,” Anderson .Paak’s South Korean-set story “K-Pops” and Rebel Wilson’s directorial debut, “The Deb.”

It’s rare for a three-month span to offer such volume and variety in the musical genre: animated adventures and live-action titles, family-friendly fare and grittier, offbeat dares. Only one is an adaptation of a well-known stage show. (Well, technically, half a stage show, since “Wicked” will be split across two installments and the pictures released a year apart.)

So what’s behind this year’s deluge of song and dance? Just as 2002’s “Chicago” became a hit after the Sept. 11 attacks and 2016’s “La La Land” served as a salve after Trump’s election win, this form has been particularly popular during or after unprecedented times. In terms of our current landscape — for example, a global pandemic, a nationwide recession, a pivotal presidential election — this year’s entries might offer audiences the onscreen resolutions they crave.

“It’s no surprise that when we go through moments of societal and economic adversity, and it seems like we’ve been fractured beyond repair, the musical can step in with a utopian message of hope and resilience,” says Desirée J. Garcia, an associate professor at Dartmouth College and author of “The Movie Musical.” “It’s a genre that has lent itself to an ending of coming together and overcoming any kind of division and conflict that exists.”

But just because characters suddenly belt out lyrics doesn’t mean their stories are all escapist entertainment. “Movies like ‘Gold Diggers of 1933’ that were in response to the Great Depression, or ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and ‘Cabaret,’ which were released during the 1970s — they really spoke to the dark side of humanity,” Garcia adds. “These musicals made a real comment on what the world had become and reflected society back to itself in a very real way. And it’s precisely the cynicism and disillusionment of such times to which the musical has historically ministered.”

Even amid the uncertainty of today’s moviegoing era, musicals can still break through at the box office. “The Little Mermaid” and “Wonka” were among 2023’s highest-grossing movies, with “Wish” and “Trolls Band Together” also earning more than $200 million worldwide.

“Musicals have the potential to be blockbusters because they typically can bring in a large number of families,” says Kevin Goetz, founder and chief executive of Screen Engine/ASI, a market research and data analytics firm. Goetz told The Times that although movies previously aimed to appeal to all four quadrants — male and female audiences and those over and under 25 — today’s titles need to entice a majority of eight octants: boys, girls, moms, dads, teenage boys, teenage girls, nonparent males and nonparent females.

“You have a real runaway success when it appeals to six or seven of those octants,” he says, citing “Wonka,” which grossed $632 million worldwide. “‘Wonka’ was quite charming and, because it was released during the holiday season — the perfect time of year for family movies — it became the perfect compromise movie: ‘Someone in my family really wants to see it, it looks fun enough, I’ll go see it with them.’ It was enough to bring out constituents from all eight demographics, and as a result, it did exceedingly well.”

Like “Wonka” and “The Little Mermaid,” the four musicals scheduled for theatrical release later this year “aren’t super big artistic swings, nothing too audacious and unusual,” says Karie Bible, a film historian and box-office analyst at Exhibitor Relations. “I don’t think they’re big risks, simply because they’re all based on beloved intellectual property, so they’ve already got a built-in audience.”

That the season’s two relatively original musicals — “Emilia Pérez,” the gender-transitioning Mexican crime title that won Cannes’ jury prize and actress awards earlier this year, and “Spellbound,” an animated fantasy with an all-star cast and songs by “Tangled” duo Alan Menken and Glenn Slater — are premiering on Netflix makes a certain sense. “They can really succeed on streaming because these platforms have the ability to surgically find those folks it’ll appeal to,” says Goetz.

Musicals or otherwise, the barrier to win over theatrical audiences remains higher than ever. “The world has changed, and what’s happening in theatrical moviegoing right now is that you see more people going to a movie theater, but they’re seeing far fewer films,” Goetz says. “If you’re asking people to leave their homes to go to a movie theater and spend upwards of $70 for a family of four’s tickets, concessions and parking, you better have an offering that is significant enough for it to be one of the few movies they see a year.

“The movies that have already overperformed this year — including ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ ‘Twisters’ and ‘It Ends With Us’ — are real events for their targeted audiences, things that people are running to the theater to see. Some of these movie musicals, to me, are truly events, and there’s tremendous opportunity for the right one.”

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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MUNICH — The head brewmaster for Weihenstephan, the world’s oldest brewery, has a secret: He really likes alcohol-free beer.

Even though he’s quick to say he obviously enjoys real beer more, Tobias Zollo says he savors alcohol-free beer when he’s working or eating lunch. It has the same taste but fewer calories than a soft drink, he said, thanks to the brewery’s process of evaporating the alcohol.

“You can’t drink beer every day — unfortunately,” he joked last week at the Bavarian state brewery in the German town of Freising, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Munich.

Zollo isn’t alone in his appreciation for the sober beverage. Alcohol-free beer has been gaining popularity in recent years as beer consumption shrinks.

At Weihenstephan, which was founded as a brewery in 1040 by Benedictine monks, non-alcoholic wheat beer and lager now make up 10% of the volume. The increase over the last few years, since they started making alcohol-free drinks in the 1990s, mirrors the statistics for the rest of Germany’s beer industry.

“The people are unfortunately — I have to say that as a brewer — unfortunately drinking less beer,” Zollo said Friday, the day before Oktoberfest officially started. “If there’s an alternative to have the crisp and fresh taste from a typical Weihenstephan beer, but just as a non-alcoholic version, we want to do that.”

Even at Oktoberfest — arguably the world’s most famous ode to alcohol — alcohol-free beer is on the menu.

All but two of the 18 large tents at the festival offer the drink through the celebration’s 16 days. The sober beverage will cost drinkers the same as an alcoholic beer — between 13.60 and 15.30 euros ($15.12 and $17.01) for a 1-liter mug (33 fluid ounces) — but save them from a hangover.

“For people who don’t like to drink alcohol and want to enjoy the Oktoberfest as well, I think it’s a good option,” Mikael Caselitz, 24, of Munich said Saturday inside one of the tents. “Sometimes people feel like they have more fun with alcohol, which is not a good thing because you can also have fun without alcohol.”

He added: “If you want to come and drink alcohol-free beer, nobody will judge you.”

This year marked the first time an alcohol-free beer garden opened in Munich. “Die Null,” which means “the zero” in German, served non-alcoholic beer, mocktails and other alcohol-free drinks near the city’s main train station this summer but was scheduled to close a few day before Oktoberfest opened.

Walter König, managing director of the Society of Hop Research north of Munich, said researchers have had to breed special hops varieties for alcohol-free beer. If brewers use the typical hops for alcohol-free beer, the distinct aroma gets lost when the alcohol is reduced during the brewing process.

But customers don’t care about that, König said Friday as he prepared for Oktoberfest.

“They only want to know that what they are tasting is as good as traditional beers with alcohol,” he said.

Michael Boxall found it “kind of funny.”

“At this age (36), it was a time where I’ve had the most calls from other teams,” Boxall told reporters Tuesday. “I mean, there were options.”

But the longest-tenured Minnesota United player will not enter free agency at the end of the season and instead signed a one-year contract with the Loons for 2025, with a club option for 2026, the team said Tuesday.

Boxall said the decision was not a particularly difficult one. The New Zealand native and MNUFC leader in MLS appearances (215 since 2017) has started a family in Minnesota, with his wife Libby, daughter and son.

“For me and my family, we’re pretty happy to stay here,” Boxall explained. “My kids love it here. Wife loves it here as well. So yeah, they’re delighted to stay on.”

Playing for the Loons, of course, was another driver for Boxall to remain in Minnesota.

“Through that whole process, I think if I was to go anywhere else, it would feel like I’d be going (for) a job,” Boxall said. “It would feel like a job, whereas here, it doesn’t. It feels like more than that.”

Boxall’s standing has led to a level of ownership in the product and he spoke about unfinished business with the Loons under first-year head coach Eric Ramsay. The club has worked to get significantly younger under new Chief Soccer Officer Khaled El-Ahmad this year, and that will continue going into next season.

But the goal is to sprinkle the youth movement in with impact veterans in leadership positions. Boxall epitomizes that, having worn the captain’s armband in 28 of 30 MLS matches this season.

Boxall has played a team-high 2,565 minutes this season and while there have been some lean games, he was huge in the 2-0 win over Sporting Kansas City on Saturday. After the Loons defense as a whole struggled in the 2-1 loss to FC Cincinnati last Wednesday, he tallied 12 clearances in Kansas.

“It was a real captain’s performance,” Ramsay said about Saturday’s match. “I think it is pretty symbolic in a sense. Someone, of course, really happy that he’s going to be around for the coming couple of years, because Boxy is someone who sets a standard with how he looks after himself, how he trains, and in those games, in particular, he’s a gladiator.”

Diaz down, but not out

Center back Jefferson Diaz exited the Kansas City win with an adductor injury, but an MRI showed no structural damage and his absence from Tuesday’s training session was deemed precautionary.

“He should be in good shape for the weekend,” Ramsay said. “Something that’s he’s just trying to work out, whether it’s pain that he can manage, or whether it’s something more serious. The fact that he’s had it scanned and it shows nothing is a really good sign.”

Tapias scuffling, but not out

The Loons have relied on center back Micky Tapias in 24 matches this season, but after a poor game in the 2-1 loss to FC Cincinnati, he was taken out of the starting XI against Sporting. He cam back in for the final 13 minutes after Diaz got hurt.

It didn’t go well as his foul in the 18-yard box led to a SKC penalty kick, which Willy Agada put off the woodwork.

“We just got to get (Tapias) to rediscover some of that conviction that he played with,” Ramsay said. “And I think he’s been, in some sense, unfortunate to be repeatedly involved with goals, and they’re not necessarily clean-cut errors, but perhaps a little bit of indecision, perhaps a little bit of lacking cohesion in the back line. So he’s been a victim of that. But I know deep down, he’s a very good player at this level.”

Briefly

After Saturday’s home game against Colorado Rapids, MNUFC will travel Monday to Salt Lake for Wednesday’s match in Utah and stay on the road through Saturday’s match at Vancouver. … Fullbacks DJ Taylor (hamstring) and Zarek Valentin (lower leg) remained sidelined Tuesday.