My work brings me up against all kinds of low life Leeds writers; they gaggle together around book launches, literary events and 'talks'. We newer ones are a fairly close-knit community and easy to track down, except for one. Steve Mosby keeps his distance. Maybe he's shy and hasn't searched us out; perhaps his genre and bigger (than most) publishing deal means he doesn't need the support and camaraderie of the Leeds lot.

Intrigued, I've been gently stalking Steve for a year, ever since I'd finished his stunning sixth novel Black Flowers on holiday. When my main criticism of a book is 'there isn't enough swearing', you know it's good. I was so struck with it that I badgered Mrs Mick to put down her 800+ page biography of Che Guevara to howls of 'But I don't like crime fiction. I don't do thrillers.' A couple of days later she was a convert, thought the swearing was perfectly adequate, and on returning to work spread the word. Within weeks there were groups of people buying and passing around his books.

What is it about then that sucked these disparate people in? Obviously they are thrillers with multi-layered and compelling plots but, although ingenious and original, these are simply the foundations of his books. From them, he builds atmospheres and places that you inhabit. There's characterisation, brilliantly handled, that seeps through the stories until you are living the lives of fully-rounded people. Possibly most startling is his ability to immerse you in the worlds and emotions of new characters in a couple of pages.

I'm struggling to decide what I like most about the books. They're scattered with little gems of insight into the human condition and reflections on the nature of life but, for me, it's between the simple mastery of the writing craft and the humanity. From any angle you look he's a fabulous writer and to have the humanity shine through in dark, violent, brooding thrillers is quite an achievement. You empathise; you feel the fear, the sadness and the elation.

None of the Leeds writers (or people) I'd asked had heard of him, hardly surprising as his UK sales are low compared to those overseas. His books have been translated into nine languages and he received a six figure sum for the rights to the German translation of The 50/50 Killer alone. I had to meet him but he's as elusive and secretive as a Water Rail in a reed bed. After 12 months of gently courting him he agreed to a meet up, he had to; he's a writer and I wanted to write about him.

I was careful as I knew he'd be carrying a blade; well, strictly speaking, it's a dagger, a prestigious Crime Writers Association Dagger. Now, I'm sure there'll be a pecking order – Frederick Forsyth won the CWA Diamond Dagger – but Steve had just won the 2012 CWA Dagger in the Library Award, selected and voted for by librarians from across the country. Librarians know books and I was impressed, especially as the award is for a body of work rather than a single title.

So what do you need to know? The young Mosby gorged himself on Stephen King and amongst his current favourite writers are Jack Ketchum, Mo Hayder, Graham Joyce, Michael Marshall Smith and Tim Willocks. He started pestering publishers at the age of 17 and got his first deal nine years later.

I was slightly surprised to hear that he often works in public spaces, tapping away on his laptop in a Leeds city centre pub (such as The Packhorse) or café in total anonymity. I wasn't surprised to hear that he's not interested in the social realism that many of us Leeds writers value so highly but more the internal side of life and crime that inhabit his dark, psychological thrillers.

Although he's from Leeds and that undoubtedly informs his writing, he doesn't define himself as a Leeds writer, his books are not set specifically in Leeds, places tend to be unnamed, but lots of Leeds places get reinvented and included. He creates his own locations but draws on his experience, visualising and twisting the settings to suit his needs, creating landscapes to fit the stories.

Unlike, say, Peter Robinson, one of Leeds' most successful crime writers, Steve doesn't do the safer and commercially astute serial books following the lives of a set cast but creates a unique world in each standalone novel. His newly released and brilliantly paced Dark Room contains all the attributes that I've described above but is also an ingenious study of cause and effect, patterns, statistics, probability chance, fate and randomness.

Skimming through press reviews on Steve's website, you find them sprinkled with predictions of 'this will be the book that breaks him'. I'm not going to go down that line as his career seems to be a slow build. I will, however, point out that his last three novels seem to be attracting industry attention and praise and it's not just his dagger. His 2010 novel, Still Bleeding, was longlisted for Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year whilst Black Flowers (2011) was shortlisted.

Our meeting was the day before the winner, Denise Mina, was announced and I asked what difference being shortlisted (or winning) might make to his UK sales but Steve was too excited about having his name listed with 'bigger names', people he admired, to think about the effect on sales.

I'm giving you some sound advice here: search out some Steve Mosby and take a chance. Then you can say that you were into him before he was 'big'.

Mick McCann's encyclopaedic How Leeds Changed the World leaves very little out.