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 and recommends Smoke, the fifth book in Joe Ide’s IQ series

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Lightseekers the debut crime fiction novel by Nigerian author Femi Kayode

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Open Water, the assured debut novel by British author Caleb Azuma Nelson.

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 and recommends The Stranger Times a new comic urban fantasy set in Manchester by CK McDonnell

A pre-apocalypse, the labyrinth, an Australian drought, the US gold rush from a new perspective and an ode to our relationship with trees form Pile by the Bed’s Top 5 reads for 2020, together with six just as interesting and engaging honourable mentions.

Pile By the Bed’s top 5 science fiction books for 2020 and 5 honourable mentions (so actually a top 10).

Pile by the Bed’s top 5 (okay, 6) fantasy novels for 2020 and four honourable mentions.

Pile by bthe Bed reviews From A Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back – forty short stories celebrating the 40th anniversary of arguably the best of the Star Wars films.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Hollow Empire the second in Australian author Sam Hawke’s Poison War fantasy series.

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 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 Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam a scary, tough, compassionate look at a small group of people dealing with the first few hours of a global catastrophe.

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 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 Why Visit America by Matthew Baker a series of speculative short stories each set in a different alternate America.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends the long awaited new fantasy novel by Susanna Clarke, Piranesi and finds it to be a gem of modern fantasy that was well worth the wait.

Pile by the Bed reviews If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha, a book which explores the lives of a group of young women in present day Seoul and the influence of the celebrity industry on their choices.
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