The way I "met" Dorothy Dunnett.
In - lets say - 1970, I was member of a BUCHCLUB in Germany. Sometime in the beginning of the 70ies the "Monthly Suggested Book" was a promising Renaissance story by a certain author named Dorothy Dunnett.
Never heard of this lady but decided to accept the book of the month. When reading it - history novels are my favourites - I found it very astonishing because the hero never gave away thoughts, and (mostly) always knew what was coming up before any other people in the book new - really a "Tausendsassa".
Well, I did like the style of writing and the story as well as the wittily behaviour of the hero and his acolytes - but was not instantly hooked, nowadays I think this was because I never got a hint about the hidden mysteries or "strange" ways of conversations and quotations.
Really got hooked when I learnt that there were 6 books of this strange man Lymond, and found out - first through J. Thin's Website (thanks God to the Internet) and then through the German Dunnetties - that only three books of the series had been translated and for the first time read Pawn in Frankincense in English.
For then I learnt to understand some (!) of the mysteries and loved the original style of writing. Useless to say that from now on I longed to have all the books in English (and meanwhile have, except King Hereafter and the Johnson Johnson mysteries). Now you could see me reading and never, never without dictionary or the Companion, and sometimes laugh out loud --- or cry out loud.
I confess that no other writer can make me feel like Dorothy Dunnett: in really "living" through her books.
Petra Cmiel, Germany