Pile by the Bed reviews Stay Awake by Megan Goldin a high concept amnesia thriller set in New York.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Partisan by Patrick Worrall – a debut Cold War thriller with chess at its centre and roots back to World War 2.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Accomplice by Steve Cavanagh, the seventh in his consistently enjoyable Eddie Flynn conman-turned-lawyer series .

Pile by the Bed reviews With a Mind to Kill, the third Ian Fleming-style James Bond thriller by Anthony Horowitz, this one set late in the famour agent’s career.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Cove by Alice Clark-Platts – an taut and effective domestic thriller set in a remote Malaysian resort.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Bay by Allie Reynolds – a thriller involving a group of surfers living on a remote Australian beach.

Pile by the Bed reviews Reputation by Sarah Vaughan a courtroom drama that deals with the treatment of elected officials, weaponisation of social media and the power of reputation.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Island by Adrian McKinty, a Deliverance-style survival thriller set on a remote Australian island.

Pile by the Bed reviews Black River by Matthew Spencer, a tense, stripped back Australian crime fiction debut set around an exclusive Sydney boys school.

Pile by the Bed reviews First Born by Will Dean, a twisty thriller involving one twin investigating the death of her identical sister.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Devil’s Bargain by Stella Rimington, a new stand alone espionage novel with its roots in the Cold War.

Pile by the Bed reviews Daughters of Eve an Australian crime fiction debut by Nina D Campbell which takes on issues of domestic and sexual violence.

Pile by the Bed reviews Anthem by Noah Hawley, an angry dystopia that takes aim at global ills and particularly the irony embedded in modern America’s view of itself.

Pile by the Bed reviews Mickey7 by Edward Ashton a fun, thrilling and heart-felt science fiction tale involving space colonies, cloning and an alien threat.

Pile by the Bed reviews Dark Horse by Gregg Hurwitz (Orphan X #7) in which his action hero Orphan X takes on a Mexican drug cartel.

Pile by the Bed reviews Wild Dogs by Michael Trant a page-turning thriller set in the remote north of Western Australia.

Pile by the Bed reviews Private Prosecution a debut crime thiller by Australian author Lisa Ellery.

It was a tough choice but here are Pile by the Bed’s top 5 books of 2021 and five honourable mentions.

Pile by the Bed reviews Kill your Brother – a breathless, tense and violent but compulsive thriller from Jack Heath.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Safe Place by LA Larkin – a page-turning thriller involving domestic violence, gaslighting and a serial arsonist with the tension fuelled by an encoaching megafire