Peter Tangent Books in Order

The Peter Tangent novels step away from police work and drop readers into the world of multinational oil and African politics. Peter Tangent is a corporate troubleshooter for a powerful American company, sent abroad whenever natural resources and unstable governments collide.

In The Tangent Objective he travels to the small West African nation of Asante, where his employer wants access to newly discovered oil reserves. On the surface his job is to make a respectable deal with the ruling king. Beneath that, he is drawn into a scheme with an American mercenary and an ambitious local officer who sees a coup as the fastest route to power.

The companion novel, The Tangent Factor, widens the scope. Tangent finds himself in a three way conflict that pits corporate interests against a ruthless politician intent on uniting parts of Africa under his own flag. Both men are connected to the same woman, and their struggle plays out in hotel bars, jungle encampments, and smoky back rooms where loyalty is a negotiable commodity.

Sanders uses these books to explore the old game of resource grabbing in a newer, postcolonial setting. The action is more overtly adventurous than in his urban mysteries, filled with helicopter flights, sudden firefights, and tense negotiations where one wrong move could topple a government.

Because there are only two volumes, the Peter Tangent series is easy to read straight through. Together they offer a compact portrait of a fixer who has to decide how much compromise he can live with when business, politics, and personal ties all pull in different directions.