Wow, tricky one this !! I have always liked Espionnage thrillers, and The Devil'S Alternative by Forsyth would be hard to beat as a Twist in the Tail type book. Crime thrillers - I am currently into Craig Russell's series abot Jan Fabel in Hamburg's murder squad. Robert Ludlum always wrote quality thrillers, with The Parsilfal Mosaic, Aquitaine Progression and the two Materese novels up with the best of them.