Pile by the Bed’s top 5 crime fiction novels for 2020 and 6 equally worthy honourable mentions. So overall a top 11 for the year.

Pile by the Bed reviews Hideout, the third book in Jack Heath’s Timothy Blake series. Another strong entry in this dark crime series.

Pile by the Bed reviews White Throat by Sarah Thornton (Clementine Jones #2) – another fast paced Australian crime thriller featuring Thornton’s flawed but engaging heroine.

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 The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton, a rollicking historical crime novel with possible supernatural elements and a tip of the hat to Sherlock Holmes.

Pile by the Bed reviews Consolation, the third book in Garry Disher’s Paul Hirschhausen series of Australian rural crime procedurals.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Kingdom – the new standalone rural Scandinavian-noir thriller from Norwegian crime fiction powerhouse Jo Nesbo.

Pile by the Bed reviews Nothing Can Hurt You by Nicola Maye Goldberg, a series of connected short stories that revolve around the death of a young woman at the hands of her boyfriend.

Pile by the Bed reviews Trust by Chris Hammer – the third book in his series featuring journalist Martin Scarsden, set in a windy, corrupt Sydney.

Pile by the Bed reviews Dead Man in Ditch (Fetch Phillips #2) by Luke Arnold, the second in his dark fantasy meets noir detective series.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Survivors by Jane Harper, a story of crime, grief and secrets set in a small Tasmanian coastal community.

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 Seven Years of Darkness, by Korean crime writer You-Jeong Jeong, her second to be be translated into English.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Suicide House by Charlie Donlea (Moore and Phillips #2).

Pile by the Bed reviews Either Side of Midnight by Benjamin Stevenson, once again featuring Jack Quick, this time trying to solve a seemingly impossible crime.

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 The Night Swim by Megan Goldin – a crime novel that explores issues of sexual abuse through a current trial and a twenty five year old cold case.

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

Pile by the Bed reviews When She Was Good by Michael Robotham – the second Cyrus Haven thriller and direct sequel to Good Girl, Bad Girl.