Pile by the Bed reviews Chloe Gong’s fantasy debut These Violent Delights – a riff on Romeo and Juliet set in an alternative 1920s Shanghai.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Open Water, the assured debut novel by British author Caleb Azuma Nelson.

Pile by the Bed reviews Memorial, the debut novel by Bryan Washington – a story of lost family, found family, acceptance and love.

Pile by The Bed reviews Loraine Peck’s debut The Second Son, a crime story set in Sydney’s suburban underworld

Allie Reynolds debut novel Shiver is an isolation thriller which, on that description makes it sound perfect for these Covid times. Set in a mainly deserted glacier-top ski resort before the start of the season it also draws heavily on Reynold’s own past as a freestyle snowboarder to flesh out its group of characters and their sketchy pasts. Milla is a former competitive snowboarder. Ten years have passed since a tragedy-filled season that changed her life. So much time has passed that Milla feels comfortable attending a kind of reunion with four of her fellow boarders from that time. She feels a thrill of nostalgia as she once again sees Brett, Dale, Heather and Curtis. But right from the start, as they board the bubble cable cars that will take them to the summit hotel, things feel a little off. And it is not long before things start to go wrong. They find the hotel completely empty of staff, their phones disappear and then during an “icebreaker” game mysterious accusations about their time ten years before emerge. All of this goes back to the event that they have come to commemorate – the disappearance of Curtis’s sister, and Milla’s main…

Pile by the Bed Reviews Clair Whitfield’s debut crime novel People of Abandoned Character, a Jack the Ripper-adjacent novel centred around an abusive relationship.

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 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 Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson, a book that follows the lives of multiple generations of an Aboriginal family living in rural NSW.

Pile by the Bed reviews the very British crime debut The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, featuring a group of unstoppable retiree amateur detectives.

Pile by the Bed reviews the debut thriller The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle, a thriller featuring almost identical twins and plenty of twists and turns.

Pile by the Bed reviews The First Sister by Linden Lewis, the start of a new space opera series with echoes of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Pile by the Bed reviews Kokomo by Victoria Hannan, the blistering and often raw debut that won the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Award.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson, debut science fiction that breathes new life into multiple world tropes.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Night Whistler by Greg Woodland another strong Australian rural crime debut set in the 1960s.

Pile by the Bed reviews If I Can’t Have You by Charlotte Levin, a debut thriller involving obsession and stalking.

Pile by the Bed reviews Blacktop Wasteland by SA Cosby – a scorching debut about a conflicted ex-getaway driver.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Safe Place by Anna Downes a domestic thriller set on a remote luxurious estate in the South of France.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Bluffs by Kyle Perry a crime fiction debut set in the wilds of Northern Tasmania featuring haunted characters with dark secrets.