How can anybody recommend a good book? There are far too many good books around! But for a good thriller writer, with a lot more than his fair share of talent and a neat sense of humour to boot, try Gavin Lyall. Any of his stories are well worth reading for the technical accuracy of the location and the background, as well as an excellent selection of plot lines and believeable characters. Unexpected, yet never laboured, twists in the stories make compelling reading. Some of his best would be "Midnight Plus One", "Wrong Side of The Sky", "Shooting Script", "Venus With Pistol", as well as his Major Maxim books and the stories about the Secret Service just before WW1. Absolutely terrific stuff, and I never tire of them.

For a comic thriller writer in a class of his own, Donald Westlake must be read. Try any of his stories about Dortmunder, a New York criminal who gets involved in the most amazing escapades. Who else would steal, not the contents of the bank, but the whole bank itself.... "Bank Shot", "Why Me", "Hot Rock", and several others.

For humour, Terry Pratchett of course, and also some, but by no means all, of Tom Holt's output. "Only Human" and Snow White and the Seven Samurai were excellent.

For an entertaining and interesting look at the Roman Empire, try Lindsey Davis, who writes crime stories about an informer (a kind of detective around the time of Vespasian)"The Silver Pigs", "Shadows in Bronze", Venus in Copper", and many others.

For alternative history sci-fi, Harry Turtledove's "Balance" series makes good reading, with the plot about an invasion of the Earth during WW2 and the resultant changes to the relationships between the antagonists, and what it does to human (and alien) society.

Those should keep you going for a couple of weeks.........