LAWRENCE SANDERS isnt obscure, nor is he ancient (though dead) Lawrence ...
But did he spend time in Africa? If not, The Tangent Objective (1976) is an even more remarkable work than I've taken it for since I first read the title right off its paperback cover. It touches all the bases of intrigue and adventure but goes far beyond their confines in giving us one of the most totally realized characters in fiction.
Peter Tangent represents Starrett oil company in the mythical country of Asante, which Sanders shoehorned between Ghana and Dahomey. To salvage Starrett's interest in an offshore oil reserve, he makes common cause with Capt. Obiri Anokye, who is fomenting a coup against the country's corrupt, corpulent king. The charismatic Little Captain, as he's known, has the unfaltering support of his army cohorts. More than that, he has the genuine interest of Asante at heart. And Tangent, accustomed to the protected environment of suits and boardrooms, also finds himself drawn into Anokye's messianic determination.
Anokye is a man of lush complexity, a figure who fuses a sometimes contrary amalgam of personal and political goals into an unstoppable force. If he were simply the black man of unimpeachable virtue he could be written off, but his willingness to make any sacrifice?even of his sworn word?to achieve a higher goal, combined with his unshakable confidence, makes him fully believable, and admirable at a higher level that's hard to name.
Beyond that, Sanders' West Africa?its rhythms, language and cultural standards?have a solidity and dignity seldom matched (maybe by Georges Simenon) in Western writing.
As usual, I'm most enamored of a title the author's fans universally ignore. However, we're in synch on The First Deadly Sin (1973), the best evocation of the mind of a serial killer I've run across. We're immediately introduced to Daniel Blank (what a name!), so there's no suspense as to whodunit. The mystery is how police captain Edward Delaney will track him down?and what will happen then.
Delaney's a dedicated, rundown cop whose wife is slowly dying in a hospital. He's on the edge of dissolution, and this case is holding him together. Blank is brilliant, concentrated in outlook and involved with Celia Montfort, a spiritual vampire who blenders what's left of his sanity. His agonizing, protracted annihilation makes him pitiable and may even restore the humanity he had long ago given up.
Much of Sanders' later work, especially the series involving amateur investigator Archy McNally in Florida, doesn't amount to much. Naturally, it sold well. What I find oddest is that he writes less convincingly about where he lives (Florida and New York) than he does about West Africa. Pictured on the flyleaf with textured mustache and holding a tabby cat, he seems more European than American, as does his studied writing style. But his early work, especially The Tangent Objective is far, far better than it has any right to be.