As a kid it was R.L. Stine. Read many of the Goosebumps series and then Fear Street. As I got older, Robert Jordan became my favorite with a dash of Michael Crichton.
I was super sad that Robert Jordan never was able to finish the Wheel of Time series, but liked that Brandon Sanderson completed it. I don't really like Sanderson's style of writing, but it was using Jordan's notes and gave the stories closure.