A pre-apocalypse, the labyrinth, an Australian drought, the US gold rush from a new perspective and an ode to our relationship with trees form Pile by the Bed’s Top 5 reads for 2020, together with six just as interesting and engaging honourable mentions.
Pile by the Bed’s top 5 crime fiction novels for 2020 and 6 equally worthy honourable mentions. So overall a top 11 for the year.
Pile by the Bed reviews Hideout, the third book in Jack Heath’s Timothy Blake series. Another strong entry in this dark crime series.
Pile By the Bed’s top 5 science fiction books for 2020 and 5 honourable mentions (so actually a top 10).
Pile by the Bed’s top 5 (okay, 6) fantasy novels for 2020 and four honourable mentions.
Pile by the Bed reviews White Throat by Sarah Thornton (Clementine Jones #2) – another fast paced Australian crime thriller featuring Thornton’s flawed but engaging heroine.
Pile by the Bed reviews Sara Sligar’s debut Take Me Apart, a book that is part mystery, part thriller, part exploration of the world of art.
Pile by bthe Bed reviews From A Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back – forty short stories celebrating the 40th anniversary of arguably the best of the Star Wars films.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Hollow Empire the second in Australian author Sam Hawke’s Poison War fantasy series.
Pile by the Bed reviews Nophek Gloss (Graven #1), the debut space opera by Essae Hansen featuring a super soldier and a found family of misfits.
Pile by the Bed reviews Reproduction the first novel by Canadian poet Ian Williams which explores human relationships and the intersect between biological and found families.
Pile by the Bed Reviews House of Earth and Blood, the first book in Sarah J Maas’s new Crescent City urban fantasy series.
Pile by the Bed reviews The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton, a rollicking historical crime novel with possible supernatural elements and a tip of the hat to Sherlock Holmes.
Pile by the Bed reviews Consolation, the third book in Garry Disher’s Paul Hirschhausen series of Australian rural crime procedurals.
Pile by the Bed reviews Honeybee by Australian Author Craig Silvey, another complex but compassionate coming of age story from the author of Jasper Jones.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends The Worst of All Possible Worlds, the last book in Alex White’s propulsive Salvagers trilogy.
Pile By the Bed Reviews A Deadly Education (Scholomance #1) by Naomi Novik the first in a series about a particularly dangerous and cutthroat magical academy.
Pile by the Bed reviews The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow a historical fantasy that involves the women’s suffrage movement and witchcraft in late 19th Century America.
Pile by the Bed reviews Catch Me If I Fall by Barry Jonsberg, a tale for teenagers set in a future Sydney dealing with inequality, climate change and robotics.
Pile by the Bed reviews Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee a fantasy novel based in Korean mythology and history.
