A bunch, in no particular order:

Ed Mcbain-When I was growing up I wanted desperately to be an Isola PD Homicide cop.  Insanely detailed, bleak as all hell and some of the funniest books I've ever read, Mcbain's 87th Precinct books are essential reading for anyone who watches HOMICIDE, THE WIRE or THE SHIELD.

Mark Billingham-Battered, crumpled crime novels about a battered, crumpled DI.  Tom Thorne is as pissed off as the 8th Precinct cops but just glowers a lot.  These are horrible books, filled with graveyard humour and mistakes that cost people lives.  Love 'em.

Paul Cornell-Cornell's DOCTOR WHO work is good, his original SF is better.  SOMETHING MORE is a story about what happens after the world ends whilst BRITISH SUMMERTIME folds Judas, time travel, the evils of greed and the city of Bath into one huge story.  Big science fiction with joined up ideas.

Allen Steele-When I wasn't wanting to be an Isola PD Homicide cop, I was wanting to be an astronaut.  Allen Steele's books are about normal people who just happen to live and work in space.  I'm increasingly aware that we may not be back on the moon this century and if this is the closest I get, it'll just about do.



Al

   It's good but falls apart a bit at the end (Make a great one shot RPG scenario though).  BRITISH SUMMERTIME is great, genuine example of an author growing and getting more comfortable with themselves on the page.