"Who’s your favorite author that other people are NOT reading? The one you want to evangelize for, the one you would run popularity campaigns for? The author that, so far as you’re concerned, everyone should be reading–but that nobody seems to have heard of. You know, not JK Rowling, not Jane Austen, not Hemingway–everybody’s heard of them. The author that you think should be that famous and can’t understand why they’re not…"

Booking Through Thursday 

Good question. I tend to be a little contrary; if everyone is reading someone it's usually a good reason not to bother with the exception of classics which not everyone is reading and even if they were they've mainly stood the test of time for a reason. I think that of modern authors who are less well known I really have enjoyed what I've read of Arturo Perez-Reverte and Boris Akunin who seem to tell tales with a bit of swagger and verve. When reading Turkish Gambit by Akunin I was convinced I knew who was the traitor. Only there was a myriad of plot twists that you genuinely could not see coming and kept you guessing again and again and of course I turned out to be very wrong.  He wrote a book that seemed so convincingly predictable and then defied every prediction with it's twists. It's good story-telling, the writing is enjoyable - it's intelligent but not too clever or too self-concious and it flows very well.

I don't suppose that either of those two count as unknown but I don't think they're hugely popular either; they're in the nice area of the market where people sell a good volume but don't get silly amounts of publicity and hype that detracts from the work itself. I guess I'm very middle of the road with books, I rarely read anything by a real unknown - how would I find out about them? - but won't touch Dan Brown or James Pattison either. (I will confess to the odd Jack Higgins as a guilty pleasure though!)