Passenger 13 by Scott Mariani

Scott Mariani has written a series of novels featuring an ex-SAS officer named Ben Hope.   Hope has set himself up as some kind of private eye come Mr Fixit and this book, available only in e-book format is the prequel.

Major Hope is recuperating from a gun shot wound received during an operation in Afghanistan.   He attends the funeral of an old comrade-in-arms who has committed suicide by crashing the plane he was piloting taking eleven other passengers and crew with him.   His daughter is sure that he has been murdered and asks for help.   As she has very little evidence that he can go on, not to mention the wound he was carrying, Hope is reluctant to get involved.   The young lady runs off in a huff and is mown down by a van whose driver gets out and checks her pulse then drives off.   The van has no number plate which leads Hope to the conclusion that something is up.   No fool our Major Hope!   He flies to the Cayman Islands where he indulges in multiple mayhem until finaly sorting out the villains who unfortunately happen to be Senior Intelligence Officers.   It comes as no surprise that his resignation is accepted.

Mr Mariani has written a first class bash-crash page turner of a thriller and if this is the prequel I shall be on the lookout for the subsequent books.