Stand by, stand by. Chris Ryan. 1996.

Geordie Sharp, a sergeant in thenSAS, is struggling to pick up the threads of his army career. Wounded in the Gulf War, he returns to Hereford to find his home life in tatters.

As he trains with Northern Ireland Troop, a murder in his family fires him with personal hatred of the IRA. POSTED TO Belfast, he discovers that his adversary is Declan Farrell, a leading player in the professional IRA. Sharp sets out to stalk and kill his man. On his side are all the skills he has learnt in the SAS. He finds the house, sets up an observation post, lies in wait….yet the waters run deeper than he supposed.

When the Regiment is tasked to train bodyguards for the President of Colombia, Sharp takes command of the team. The scene shifts to South America and the drug wars being fought by the cocaine cartels. There, too, the IRANis involved, training terrorists, recruiting funds and weapons. 

The seizure of an SAS officer leads to an international incident. The British and American governments authorise a joint operation, and the action builds to a desperate twin climax: out at sea, the United States nuclear submarine Endeavour closes in on the drug-runners’ cargo vessel, and in the jungle Sharp again comes face to face with his mortal enemy.