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Readers of the massive series of books by Bernard Cornwell covering the career of Richard Sharpe, hero of the Peninsular War and various other battles of the Napoleonic Era, at first will be puzzled by the title SHARPE'S FURY. We have been with Sharpe in hazard after hazard --- a den of tigers, in dangerous battle, on the parapets and ramparts of every castle in Spain, and even on the gallows. We have seen him battle all matter of enemies at home and abroad, from the trenches of Spanish battlefields to the palaces of Indian rajahs and the back streets of London. And we wonder just what sort of scenario Bernard Cornwell has come up with this time to make Sharpe angry --- really, really angry.
Here's the situation. British forces under an incompetent brigadier have managed to capture a half-deserted French outpost on the Portuguese frontier. There is another outpost on the other side of the border, across a wide river spanned by a pontoon bridge. Sharpe's orders are to destroy the bridge from the opposite side; that way the British can burn the bridge at their leisure, without giving the French forces the chance to repair it. The only problem is that the bridge is the only line of retreat, and the beleaguered French forces are doing just that --- taking their wounded and their women with them. (The Sharpe novels are not what you would call "feminist.")
Rather than blowing up the bridge full of refugees in flight, Sharpe arranges for a load of gunpowder to be hidden in their luggage --- there wasn't a Transportation Security Administration during the Peninsular War, either. However, his scheme to destroy the bridge is foiled by a suspicious French colonel who captures Sharpe's best lieutenant in the bargain by dishonoring a truce agreement. In the chaos, Sharpe, his sidekick and top sergeant Patrick Harper, and the dumbfounded brigadier end up riding the remnants of the bridge downstream with the French in pursuit behind them and end up being swept up in another battle to secure England's supremacy over Napoleon. Sharpe vows his revenge against the Frenchman; in Cornwell novels revenge usually ends up served very cold indeed.
It's the start of a rollicking good adventure story, although one that takes some odd side trips. Sharpe and Harper end up in Cadiz, a Spanish coastal fortress that is the only remnant of independent Spanish rule in the French-controlled country. The big news in Cadiz is the discovery of a packet of letters written by an English nobleman to a prominent courtesan. When Sharpe shows up, far from his regiment, he is tapped to put his skills as a rogue and a thief into play to rescue the letters, the nobleman and (Sharpe being Sharpe) the courtesan herself.
Sharpe ends up spending more time skulking along the streets of Cadiz ---- and less time in the courtesan's bed --- than the strictest fans of the series would probably like. But the tale is graced with any number of villains --- the sneering French colonel, the aristocratic Spanish admiral and his conniving aide, a priest with a treacherous streak and a deadly knife. It's the villains who set Richard Sharpe into such a fury, though Cornwell hasn't forgotten his wit, obstinacy and sheer nerve in dealing with his foes. SHARPE'S FURY may be driven by anger, but fans will fall on this latest volume with delight.
--- Reviewed by Curtis Edmonds, who writes the "Northbound" blog at http://www.txreviews.com/blog/.
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