Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Son of Nobody by Yann Martel a retelling of the seige of Troy which resonates with the life of its translator.

Pile by the Bed reviews Minbak by Ela Lee the story of three genrations of women who circile arounda long held secret but also a dark aspect of South Korean history.

Pile by the Bed reviews Crown City by Naomi Hirahrara – engaging historical crime fiction exploring the world of Japanese expatriates in Pasadena in the early Twentieth Century.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Nonesuch by Francis Spufford a rich and engaging historical fantasy set in London in the lead up to and during World War II.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Infamous Gilberts by Anglea Tomaskli, debut fiction that charts the fall of a wealthy English family framed as a tour of their crumbling house and grounds.

Pile by the Bed reviews A Slow and Secret Poison by Carmella Lowkis – an engaging and creepy modern gothic tale with a toxic relationship at its core.

Pile by the Bed reviews House of Splinters by Laura Purcell, a prequel to her breakour gothic debut novel The Silent Companions, once again featuring a host of creepy wooden effigies.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan a compulsive, dark (but also sometimes darkly humorous) historical fantasy debut.

Pile by the Bed reviews Rebel English Academy by Mohammed Hanif, a darkly satirical exploration of Pakistan under authoritarian rule in the late 1970s

Pile by the Bed reviews Circle of Shadows by Marisa Linton, an Edwardian crime novel with a dash of the occult centred around a determined female protagonist.

Pile By the Bed’s Top 10 books of 2025:
Salvage by Jennifer Mills
Arborescence by Rhett Davis
We Do Not Part by Han Kang
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
King Sorrow by Joe Hill
Eden by Mark Brandi
The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
Slow Gods by Claire North
Picks and Shovels by Corey Doctorow

Pile by the Bed reviews Benbecula by Gareme Macrae Burnet, a crime tale based on the true story of a man who killed his family on a remote Scottish island in the 1850s. Part of the Darkland Tales, a series of novels by Scottish authors retelling stories from Scottish history.

Pile by the Bed reviews Murder at the Black Cat Café by Seishi Yokomizo, part of a long running Japanese crime fiction series featuring consulting detective Kosuke Kindaichi.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery a fun, locked-room manor house murder mystery set in 1910 featuring a new detective pair or ex-con Stephen Pike and sharp octegenarian Decima Stockingham.

Pile by the Bed reavies Traitor’s Legacy by SJ Parris, the first book in a new series of crime novels set in late-Elizabethan London featuring Sophia de Wolf. following on from her long running Giodarno Bruno series.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends The Death of Shame by Ambrose Parry the fifth and final book in the always excellent Raven and Fisher historical crime series set in 1850s Edinburgh.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Predicament by William Boyd the second book of his historical espionage series featuring amateur spy and travel writer Gabriel Dax.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends The Hollow Girl by Lyn Yeowart, page-turning but dark historical crime fiction dealing with the pactice of forced adoption in Australia between the 1950s and 1970s.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson a twisty crime story based around the owner of a sweet shop in 18th Century London.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Lion Hearts by Dan Jones the final book in his Essex Dogs trilogy which has followed the exploits of a group of British archers in the mid 14th Century.