5 Underrated Authors You Should Be Reading in 2026
April 22, 2026
If you’ve burned through the latest blockbusters and are looking for a new series to sink your teeth into, some of the best storytelling in fiction is happening below the bestseller radar. From gritty Tartan Noir to sweeping dragon-shifter fantasy, these five authors have deep backlogs that are perfectly built for binge-reading.
1. Denzil Meyrick — DCI Daley Series
If you love atmospheric Scottish crime fiction, Denzil Meyrick is essential reading. His DCI Daley Series is set in the fictional town of Kinloch on the Kintyre peninsula — a place as beautifully drawn as the mysteries that unfold there. Meyrick has a rare ability to balance genuine humor, small-town warmth, and dark procedural plotting in a way that feels completely natural.
Detective Chief Inspector Jim Daley is one of the most human detectives in modern crime fiction — overworked, underpaid, and quietly carrying more than his job description implies. His partner DS Brian Scott provides the series’ considerable comic relief. Together they make for one of the most enjoyable investigative partnerships in the genre.
Start with: Whisky From Small Glasses — the first novel in the series, which sets up Kinloch, the characters, and Meyrick’s voice perfectly.
Who will love it: Readers who enjoy Ian Rankin or Ann Cleeves will find the same combination of strong sense of place, believable police procedure, and deeply human protagonists. The Scottish setting gives it an atmosphere all its own.
The series now spans 17 books including several short stories. Once you’re in, you won’t want to leave Kinloch.
See the full DCI Daley Series reading order →
2. Susan Stoker — SEAL of Protection Series
For readers who want high-stakes military action mixed with romance, Susan Stoker is one of the most reliable names in the genre. Her SEAL of Protection Series launched her career and remains a touchstone for military romance fans worldwide.
Stoker’s formula is built on a specific kind of character dynamic: the competent, protective alpha hero paired with a woman who is just as capable, often in ways that only become clear as the danger escalates. The plots move fast. The emotional stakes are real. The relationships feel earned rather than convenient.
Start with: Protecting Caroline — the first entry in the original SEAL of Protection series, which introduces readers to the team and the world.
Why she has such a loyal readership: Stoker writes with genuine respect for both her heroes and heroines. The military details are accurate, the action sequences are tight, and the romance hits its marks without sacrificing plot. She’s built an interconnected universe that spans multiple spinoff series.
Beyond the original series, Stoker has expanded into the SEAL of Protection: Legacy Series and the more recent SEAL of Protection: Alliance Series — so if you fall for the world, there’s a lot more to explore.
See the full SEAL of Protection Series reading order →
3. William W. Johnstone — The Last Gunfighter Series
William W. Johnstone was a titan of the Western genre, and his Last Gunfighter Series is a masterclass in frontier storytelling. The series follows Frank Morgan — a man with a deadly reputation he can’t outrun — as he navigates a rapidly changing American West where violence is both his tool and his burden.
Johnstone understood the Western as a moral genre, not just a genre of action. Frank Morgan isn’t a hero who enjoys his skill. He’s a man trying to live quietly in a world that won’t let him. That tension drives all 24 books in the series.
Start with: The Drifter — the opening volume that establishes Frank Morgan’s situation and sets the tone for everything that follows.
Why it works: Johnstone’s prose is lean and propulsive. The frontier settings are vivid without being romanticized. And Frank Morgan is the kind of character who reveals more depth with every book — which is exactly what you want in a long-running series.
Johnstone’s nephew J.A. Johnstone continues the series and has extended the Johnstone Western universe considerably, so there’s no shortage of reading material once you’re in.
See the full Last Gunfighter Series reading order →
4. Brian Freeman — Jonathan Stride Series
Brian Freeman deserves a much larger readership. His Jonathan Stride Series is set in Duluth, Minnesota — a lakeside city that Freeman uses to extraordinary effect. The cold, the isolation, and the industrial landscape shape the mysteries as much as any plot element. It’s one of the most atmospherically distinctive procedural series running.
Jonathan Stride himself is a complex protagonist: a detective whose professional instincts are sharp but whose personal life is perpetually complicated by the cases he works. Freeman specialises in the kind of psychological thriller where you’re not sure who to trust until the final act — and even then, you second-guess yourself.
Start with: Immoral — the debut novel that introduces Stride and establishes the Duluth setting. It opens with a missing persons case that quickly becomes something far darker.
Who will love it: If you enjoy Michael Connelly’s procedural depth but want something darker in tone and more psychologically intense, Freeman is the author to seek out. He’s one of the finest crime writers working today and consistently underappreciated.
See the full Jonathan Stride Series reading order →
5. Donna Grant — Dark Kings Series
If you prefer your series with magic, mythology, and a sweeping sense of lore, Donna Grant has built something remarkable in her Dark Kings Series. Set in the Scottish Highlands, the series follows dragon-shifters — ancient beings who have walked the earth for millennia — navigating a world that doesn’t know they exist, while also falling, inevitably, for the humans who wander into their orbit.
At 35 books, the Dark Kings Series is one of the most expansive paranormal romance universes in the genre. Grant has constructed a genuine mythology: there are factions, politics, ancient grudges, and a cosmology that rewards readers who commit to the long arc. Individual books work as romances, but the series as a whole is something much more ambitious.
Start with: Darkest Flame — the first full-length novel in the series (there are three shorter novellas that precede it, collected as Dark Heat, but Darkest Flame is where the larger story begins in earnest).
Why it rewards commitment: Grant is a worldbuilder. The longer you stay in the Dark Kings universe, the richer it becomes. Characters from earlier books return, relationships evolve, and the mythology deepens. If you like series that reward investment, this is one of the best examples in the genre.
See the full Dark Kings Series reading order →
Where to Start
All five of these authors have something in common: long, deep backlogs that give you somewhere to go once the first book hooks you. That’s increasingly rare. If you’re tired of waiting for the next book in a series, these authors have already done the work of giving you months — or years — of reading material.
Pick the genre that fits your mood, start with book one, and see where it takes you.