Arturo Perez Reverte list:

1st the famous ones and those made into movies (all these make a good reading):

La tabla de Flandes
El club Dumas
El maestro de esgrima

2nd the historical ones (basically about Spain's less than glorious Empire days):

Any of the Alatriste series (they are short and depict a lot of the Spanish Siglo de oro, they make a good reading too but the Spanish might be a bit difficult)
Cabo Trafalgar (yeah, we lost that battle but the French made us do it)
El húsar

3rd the contemporary ones:

La carta esferica (a book about sailing that contains terminology my father hasn't even heard of, as a consequence, he is still pissed and the book has been sent back to me as punishment)
La reina del sur
Territorio comanche (depicts his days with the Spanish TV in Yugoslavia during the war after which he soundly resigned, he also covered Mozambique, the Falklands, Eritrea, Chipre, Sahara, Chad, El Salvador, Angola and Rumania)