Pile by the Bed reviews The Women of Troy by Pat Barker, continuing the story of the fall of the Troy from the point of view of Briseis, begun in The Silence of the Girls.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Velvet was the Night a historical thriller by Silvia Moreno-Garcia which takes the 1971 student riots in Mexico City as a jumping off point.
Pile by the Bed reviews Miles Allinson’s second novel In Moonland, an exploration of the growth of cults in the 1970s and the integenerational consequences of trauma.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Harlem Shuffle – a crime caper novel set in 1960s Harlem by double Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead.
Pile by the Bed reviews The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley – in which she brings her steampunk sensibility with a little time travel mixed in to an alternate history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Shelley Parker-Chan’s debut She Who Became the Sun – the first in her Radiant Emperor Duology set in slightly fantasy version of 14th Century China.
Pile by the Bed reviews Foregone by American novelist Russell Banks in which truth and fiction converge with aspects of Banks’ own life in the fictional reflections of an ageing film maker.
Pile by the Bed reviews Girl One by Sarah Flannery Murphy a high concept speculative thriller that is clever, thought provoking and engaging.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Talk to Me by TC Boyle’s 18th novel, this one dealing compassionately and empathetically with issues of animal exploitation, experimentation and ethics.
Pile by the Bed reviews Hades, Argentina by Daniel Loedel a magical realist trip back into the dark days of Argentine military rule.
Pile by the Bed reviews Ariadne by Jennifer Saint, a retelling of the Greek myth of Ariadne and going both behind and beyond the well known story of Theseus and the Minotaur.
Pile by the Bed reviews The Missing by Dirk Kurbjuweit (translated by Imogen Taylor) a fictionalised account of the hunt for the Butcher of Hannover.
Pile by the Bed reviews The Final Revival of Opal and Nev, Dawnie Walton’s debut which explores issues of racism, gender relations, privilege and entitlement in the context of the story of a pair of 1970s music maker.
Pile by the Bed reviews The April Dead by Alan Parks, the fourth book in his Harry McCoy crime series set in 1970s Glasgow.
Pile by the Bed reviews Hyde by Craig Russell a gothic police-procedural reimagining of the story behind Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde
Pile by the Bed reviews Dangerous Women by Hope Adams a reimgaining of the voyage of the women’s convict ship Rajah and the creation of the Rajah Quilt.
Pile by the Bed reviews The Long, Long Afternoon – debut historical crime fiction by Inga Vesper set in Los Angeles in the late 1950s.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Like Mother by Cassandra Austin – a dark, engaging thematically rich novel with a devastating premise.
Pile by the Bed reviews Civilisations by Laurent Binet – an alternative history that imagines an Incan takeover of Europe in the Sixteenth Century.
Pile by the Bed reviews A History of What Comes Next, the first in a new series by Sylvain Neuvel which imagines an alien influence behind the space race.
