I'd second Shardlake - though I wish he'd get on with writing the next one.
Sansome does some good modern fiction with Winter in Madrid (Spanish Civil War) and Dominion (W.W.2. story set in a Britain that had conceded defeat after Dunkirk).
If you're interested in Scotland, I'd heartily recommend Nigel Tranter (about 60 plus of them I think), ranging from Macbeath through to 19th century.
If you're hooked, it might be preferable to read them chronologically rather than the order they were written - wish I had.
If not - trilogies like 'The Bruce' are superb appetite whetters.
Jim Carroll