I'll admit, I started reading this series for all the wrong reasons. I caught the movie version of Sharpe's Enemy on PBS, saw the camaraderie between Richard Sharpe and his men, saw how amazing Sean Bean was in the part, and fell hook and line for it. When I discovered that the movies (most of the books have been made into movies by the BBC) were based on books, I began tracking them down. Something you might need to know --- Cornwell began this series with Richard Sharpe as a solider under Wellington during the war with Napoleon. Once he'd gotten to a point past that, he decided to begin with Sharpe in India. Thus, while this is the 18th book in the series, it's the fifth, chronologically.
Richard Sharpe is a solider, rogue, a Quioxte-esq romantic, and a killer. An orphan raised in the cruel streets of Wapping (a part of London) he has learned to survive how he can. Even as an adult several years later, he doesn't always have the luxury of morals. The Richard we meet in this book has risen through the ranks to the rank of Lieutenant, an admirable and rare feat helped along by his bravery in saving the life of Wellington. His beloved has recently died, taking with her his meager riches, his house, and any contentment he managed to gain for himself. He is a creature stuck between worlds - too refined for the gutter he came from, unacceptable to the upper-class, pushed from being a valuable solider (what he's best at) to being a quartermaster, Sharpe feels himself at loose ends and wants to begin again. Unfortunately with no money and no place in a caste-conscious society, such things are quite impossible.
One evening, a Major General Baird runs into Sharpe, and offers him a job - to guard an Aide to the Duke of York and a chestful of gold on their way to Denmark. Denmark has ships, a beautiful fleet that Napoleon is determined to take for himself if the British don't beat him to it. The chest of gold is a bribe for the Crown Prince, in the hope that the matter can be settled without war. Fresh from an act of desperation and revenge, Sharpe readily agrees. Unfortunately, the Aide, Lavisser, isn't exactly what he seems and Sharpe is pulled into a web of deceit and murder.
This book has all of the things I love about this series and more. Sometimes I wonder if Cornwell doesn't have a time machine that he sneaks out and uses, for the details are always rich and bright. The politicking and back biting that happens among the officers, and the rough and often desperate actions of the ranks beneath them make each character feel like actual people from the past. Sharpe is not always a sympathetic character, but he is exactly the man of the time that he would have been, were he a real historic figure. He is heroic, unabashedly romantic, passionate, courageous and very likable. The battles and historical detail are amazingly well written, without being over bearing. The villains are infinitely dislikable, making it easier for you to side with the British, whose own action in this novel are not always pristine. I do not often read historical adventures, but all of these elements added together make for a story that I find captivating and enjoyable.
Sharpe's Prey
Bernard Cornwell
