Abundance by Alan Chan

Asteroid mining promises untold riches for those willing to take the risks… but in the race to gain first-mover advantage, the price of failure can be severe.

The crew of the first commercial space mission to retrieve an asteroid for mining purposes has been killed in a catastrophic accident. Washed up ex-astronaut Charles ‘Chuck’ Sorrel is hired to look into the affairs of Abundance, the company behind the mission. He asks a few questions, makes a few conclusions, and writes some recommendations... but never gets a chance to collect.

Sorrel's easy-money gig turns sour when rival Chinese asteroid mining company Yangshen is implicated. The discovery triggers an international incident and thrusts an unwilling Sorrel into a trip across the Pacific, dinner with Yangshen’s CEO, confrontations with the Mission Commander's widow Jen, and pressure to “hurry up and get to the bottom of things”. Trapped in a high-level cover up, Sorrel must navigate a web of lies and deceit to uncover the truth – and make peace with his past in order to save the future.

Abundance is a cross-genre sci-fi thriller that spans the world and the heavens above… offering a glimpse into the messy near-future world of commercial space exploration and militarization, emergent AGI and geopolitical intrigue – where the ground truth is all-too-human and wholly unpredictable.