Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex – an assured and absorbing debut based on the true story of the locked door disappearance of a group of lighthouse keepers.
Pile by the Bed reviews City of Vengeance a debut crime novel by screenwriter DV Bishop set in and around historical events in 16th Century Florence
Pile by the Bed reviews One, Night New York, a crime fiction debut that explores 1930s New York by Lara Thompson.
Pile by the Bed reviews The Silent Listener, the debut novel by Lyn Yeowart dealing with the dark side of living in rural Australia in the second half of the twentieth century.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Lightseekers the debut crime fiction novel by Nigerian author Femi Kayode
Pile by the Bed reviews Chloe Gong’s fantasy debut These Violent Delights – a riff on Romeo and Juliet set in an alternative 1920s Shanghai.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Open Water, the assured debut novel by British author Caleb Azuma Nelson.
Pile by the Bed reviews Memorial, the debut novel by Bryan Washington – a story of lost family, found family, acceptance and love.
Pile by The Bed reviews Loraine Peck’s debut The Second Son, a crime story set in Sydney’s suburban underworld
Allie Reynolds debut novel Shiver is an isolation thriller which, on that description makes it sound perfect for these Covid times. Set in a mainly deserted glacier-top ski resort before the start of the season it also draws heavily on Reynold’s own past as a freestyle snowboarder to flesh out its group of characters and their sketchy pasts. Milla is a former competitive snowboarder. Ten years have passed since a tragedy-filled season that changed her life. So much time has passed that Milla feels comfortable attending a kind of reunion with four of her fellow boarders from that time. She feels a thrill of nostalgia as she once again sees Brett, Dale, Heather and Curtis. But right from the start, as they board the bubble cable cars that will take them to the summit hotel, things feel a little off. And it is not long before things start to go wrong. They find the hotel completely empty of staff, their phones disappear and then during an “icebreaker” game mysterious accusations about their time ten years before emerge. All of this goes back to the event that they have come to commemorate – the disappearance of Curtis’s sister, and Milla’s main…
Pile by the Bed Reviews Clair Whitfield’s debut crime novel People of Abandoned Character, a Jack the Ripper-adjacent novel centred around an abusive relationship.
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 Nophek Gloss (Graven #1), the debut space opera by Essae Hansen featuring a super soldier and a found family of misfits.
Pile by the Bed reviews Reproduction the first novel by Canadian poet Ian Williams which explores human relationships and the intersect between biological and found families.
Pile by the Bed reviews Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson, a book that follows the lives of multiple generations of an Aboriginal family living in rural NSW.
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 The First Sister by Linden Lewis, the start of a new space opera series with echoes of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Pile by the Bed reviews Kokomo by Victoria Hannan, the blistering and often raw debut that won the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Award.
Pile by the Bed reviews The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson, debut science fiction that breathes new life into multiple world tropes.
