Last summer, I've published a list of 10 up-and-coming writers that you SHOULD know about and it worked very well. To be honest, it's now the fourth or fifth most popular post in the history of this site, so I figure you guys are interested in diversifying your reading lists and learning about new and exciting talents, so here's a list of writers you probably don't know for diverse reasons that are both valid and not, but mostly not.
Before you jump me with the question, I am very aware that this list has ten white males on it and I understand this is not an accurate representation of the contemporary landscape. It's a very accurate representation of the type of writers asking me to review their work though, so it's up to you to change that. I've had several female writers sending me their book for review after I published my latest list, so it'll slowly change in the upcoming months.
So, who are the best talents who keep flying under your radar? Here they are.
RAY BANKS
Start with: Matador
Ray Banks is a little bit of a traditionalist, which means he's a spiritual heir to the likes of Donald Westlake and George V. Higgins. His strengths are his vivid dialogues and his unpredictability. Banks' biggest tour de force probably is 2012' MATADOR, which is about the ultimate existential vengeance novel, a theme a lot of writers take a crack at, but never get quite right. His writing is poised, smart and controlled. Why don't you know him? I don't know, probably because he's Scottish?
ERIC BEETNER
Start with: Dig Two Graves
Beetner has been in the game for several years, but 2015 seems some kind of breakout for him as he's published several books within the span of the last twelve months, which could explain why you don't know him already. His novel RUMRUNNERS established him as one of Joe Lansdale's successors as the torch bearer of killer storytelling in genre fiction, but if you have to begin somewhere, try the short, hilarious and supercharged DIG TWO GRAVES, that landed Beetner on my radar a couple years ago. Eric Beetner loves to reinvent old tropes, turn them on their heads and spin them in new directions. He's a breath of fresh air in crime fiction.
MAX BOOTH III
Start with: How to Successfully Kidnap Strangers
Some of you already know who Max Booth III is because he's become a semi-regular feature on this blog, but he's still very much an underground figure. I've compared Booth to a more humorous offspring to Richard Matheson before and I stand by my word. He has one of the strongest creative visions in speculative fiction/horror, his stories never read like anything else and he's got a god given ability for comedic timing that gives him an edge on the legions of self-important genre writers out there. If Dean Koontz sells millions of novels, there are no valid reasons why it's not going to eventually happen to Booth, who is a better writer.
BLAKE BUTLER
Start with: 300,000,000
Blake Butler already has the attention of important people. He's been publishing with Harper Perennial for a couple years now and been writing features for freakin' VICE too. I had no fucking idea who he was until last year when my friend Brian Lindenmuth showed me his copy of 300,000,000, a complex mystery turned apocryphal apocalyptic novel about contemporary America. It floored me. I've never read anything even remotely similar to this. It turned every overpowering negative emotion men can feel into a byzantine, but spellbinding narrative. Butler is not for everybody as he's kind of a mad scientist of language, but he's one of the darkest authors I know.
CODY GOODFELLOW
Start with: Repo Shark
I'm still getting acquainted with this guy's body of work, but saying that he's a misunderstood cult figure wouldn't be exaggerating. His novel REPO SHARK was a delightful oddity that was more akin to a wild cartoon than straight crime fiction, yet it showed a narrative mastery that rivals established storytellers in the writing business. You can tell the quality of a story by the number of unexpected places it brings you and REPO SHARK takes you all over Hawaii both literally and figuratively. Cody Goodfellow is not just a bizarre man with a lobster on his forehead he can write better than most.
DAVID JAMES KEATON
Start with: Fish Bites Cop! Stories to Bash Authorities
I have a love/hate relationship with the books of David James Keaton, but their quality is undeniable. DJK, as I like to call him, is a throwback author that doesn't fit the self-conscious, self-important model of contemporary fiction. Don't get me wrong, his novels are smart and oddly self-aware, he just doesn't gloat about it in his narrative. Reading Keaton is like taking a time machine back to the cocaine age and read what your favorite contemporary writer's work would be like if written under a three days, sleepless cocaine binge. His novel THE LAST PROJECTOR is an immense mindfuck, but it's one of the best literary puzzles that came out in recent years.
CHRIS LAMBERT
Start with: Killer and Victim
This one was a nice surprise from King Shot Press. Chris Lambert achieved something with his first novel that many establish writers can only dream of: creating a lively and coherent imaginary city from the ground up. Alexander is no alternate dimension New York or Barcelona, it's a unique and beautiful place at the crossroads of existence. Lambert's work is visibly influenced by the great Don DeLillo and it shares the same melancholy and unpredictability with the work of the American master, but his creative vision is unique and well, more ambitious. Lambert has a series of books planned about the city of Alexander and the next volume will be a day one purchase for me.
RAYMOND LITTLE
Start with: Bow Creek, in American Nightmare
A couple weeks ago, if you would've told me that I've only dreamed about Raymond Little's short story Bow Creek and that he doesn't exist, I might've believed you. Fortunately, I've found him on the internet through the magic of backlinking. Yes, I've put a guy on this list based on a short story alone because it was that good. Little's writing style rich and controlled, yet it has an economy and a great sense of timing. Nothing happens for no reason in Bow Creek. You'll get acquainted with this terrific talent in 2016 as his frist novel will be published by Blood Bound Books.
CAMERON PIERCE
Start with: Our Love Will Go the Way of the Salmon
I've discovered Cameron Pierce with a grindhouse horror novel about fishing he co-wrote with Adam Cesare. I've had a feeling about this guy and after reading OUR LOVE WILL GO THE WAY OF THE SALMON, I was glad to realize I was right: Cameron Pierce is more than a genre writer. He's a guy who connects the dots between the supernatural, fiction and the human experience. Pierce's fishing stories are especially beautiful as he understands the beauty and tenderness of human connection better than most people and is able to extrapolate it in all kinds of wicked, supernatural scenario. Cameron Pierce, not unlike Blake Butler, is one of these authors who can express what you feel better than you possibly could.
RYAN SAYLES
Start with: The Subtle Art of Brutality
I have no idea why Ryan Sayles is not a millionaire bestseller right now. He should be sitting at a Kansas City country club meeting, smoking cigars with James Ellroy and sharing stories of literary success of some sort. He has the best, most insanely marketable writing style, a sense of pacing I've rarely seen as a reader, his stories are always original and he single-handedly resuscitated the private detective novel and ushered it in the 21st century. I mean, c'mon. Why don't YOU know who he is? Ryan Sayles is the next big thing in crime fiction and this is your chance to step in the bandwagon before it's cool.