Pete Sawyer is a private eye of a different kind.

The son of a World War II American pilot and a brave French resistance fighter, he grew up on both sides of the Atlantic -- though he prefers his sun-dappled villa on the Riviera to most other places. He takes pleasure in a fine wine...and a good gun. His French name is Pierre-Ange, and it suits him. In English, it means Stone Angel.

When a beautiful young woman, dripping wet and alone, wandered onto his patio, ex-cop and private eye Pete Sawyer knew he was looking at trouble. He also knew he would take the job.

It sounded simple enough: deliver a letter to a local Riviera resident. But when Pete arrived, the man had vanished and his wife was being worked over by two thugs.

That was only the beginning of a murderous trail of diamonds and death that led from the Cote d''Azur into the exotic heart of Morocco. There, in the stark Sahara, Pete would spark a bloody showdown that few would live to talk about....