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 Nick – Michael Farris-Smith’s prequel to The Great Gatsby, exploring the early life of that book’s narrator Nick Carraway

Pile by the Bed reviews The Shape of Darkness – another pitch perfect Victorian-era gothic horror novel by Laura Prucell.

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 The Beach Caves by Trevor Shearston which takes readers back to the 1970s with a focus on the heightened emotions of a team of archaeologists and their students and the consequences .of their actions.

Pile by the Bed reviews The System by Ryan Gattis, a forensic and effective look at the United States justice system set in the early 1990s.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends the new translation of the ancient English epic poem Beowulf by Maria Dahvana Headley.

Pile by the Bed reviews Olga by Bernhard Schlink, a novel which explores Germany in the Twentieth Century through the eyes of one woman.

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 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 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 Burning Island by Jock Serong, set in the early days of the colonisation of Australia and sequel to 2018’s Preservation.

Pile by the Bed reviews V2 by Robert Harris, a novel which looks at the development and use of the V2 rocket in World War 2 and the attempts to prevent V2 attacks on London.

Pile by the Bed reviews A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville – her fourth exploration of the early days of the colony of Sydney, this one through the eyes of Elizabeth Macarthur.

Pile by the Bed reviews Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell a joyful look at the late 1960s music scene which can stand alone but has plenty of connections to other Mitchell works.

Pile by the Bed reviews Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia which true to its title is a gothic horror thriller set in the mountains of Mexico in the early 1950s.

Pile by the Bed reviews Desire Lines by Felicity Volk an Australian romance that spans the second half of the Twentieth Century

Pile by the Bed reviews The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi, an assured and unique debut novel set in an alternate Elizabethan England.