Pile by the Bed reviews The Secret Hours by Mick Herron a top shelf stand alone espionage novel set in Herron’s Slough House continuity.

Pile by the Bed reviews Ordinary Gods and Monsters by Chris Womersley a kids-on-bikes coming-of-age crime story set in 1980s Melbourne suburbia.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue, a book that explores the teenage years of Victorian-era personality Ann Lister through the eyes of her roommate and first lover – Elixa Raine.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends He Who Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan, the final book in her Radiant Emperor Duology a historical fantasy set in fourteenth century China, Mongolia and Korea.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Cuddy by Benjamin Myers an exploration of the life and legacy of St Cuthbert and the Cathedral built to house his remains in Durham over a period of 1300 years.

Pile by the Bed reviews Airside by Christopher Priest a novel that explores the starnge “null space” of airports through the eyes of a film critic.

Pile by the Bed reviews Abandon by Blake Crouch, a thriller revolving around a hundred year old mystery involving the disappearance of the population of a mining town.

Pile by the Bed reviews For the First Time, Again, the final book in Take Them to the Stars, Sylvain Neuvel’s science fiction series that reimagines the second half of the Twentieth Century and in particular the space race.

Pile by the Bed reviews Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia a horror story based around B-Grade horror films involving cults and magic set in Mexico City in the early 1990s.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends The Beasts of Paris by Stef Penney, a compelling historical novel that takes readers to the 1870 seige of Paris during the Franco-Prussian war.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Unearthed by Lenny Bartulin a quiet, contemplative crime novel that explores the Eastern European migration to Tasmania after World War II.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Housekeepers by Alex Hay an engaging heist/caper novel set in the upstairs downstairs world of Edwardian London.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Crook Manifesto, the follow up to Harlem Shuffel and second in Colson Whitehead’s projected trilogy of heist novels set in Harlem between the 1960s and 1980s.

Pile by the Bed reviews 8 Lives of a Century-old Trickster by Mirinae Lee, an assured and affective debut that takes readers through some of the darkest aspects of 20th century Korean history from a woman’s perspective.

Pile by the Bed reviews Small Worlds the second book from British author Caleb Azuma Nelson, focussing on the experience of the Ghanaian community in London in the early 2010s.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman an Elizabethan fantasy in the tragedian tradition but with a punk sensibiity

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-Yong an epic story of Twentieth Century Korean history through the eyes of a family of workers.

Pile by the Bed reviews Southern Aurora by author Mark Brandi – a coming of age story set in country Australian in the 1980s.

Pile by the Bed reviews To Die in June, the sixth book in Alan Parks “dark but pitch perfect Tartan Noir” series set in 1970s Glasgow.

Pile by the Bed reviews Voices of the Dead, the fourth book in Ambrose Parry’s Raven and Fisher historical crime series set around the medical fraternity in 19th century Edinburgh.