SHARPE'S COMMAND

In Richard Sharpe’s 23rd adventure, he and his fellow British riflemen fight the French in Spain.

In the spring of 1812, General Hill sends Major Sharpe on a reconnaissance mission to check out key bridges across Spain’s wide River Tagus. One French army needs to cross it to regroup with Napoleon’s army to the north, so stopping that connection is crucial to the British. Sharpe is ordered “not to poke the wasps’ nest,” and his subordinate Lieutenant Love notes that the mission “calls for subtlety and forbearance.” But Sharpe sees the need for immediate action, so, like the daring commander he is, he disobeys orders. Blood flows aplenty as his riflemen and members of the Spanish resistance wreak havoc on the Crapauds (pardonnez-moi, that means Toads) with muskets, rifles, and cannons, while the French retaliate fiercely. On a broad scale, the story is about real events, but the layer of fictional characters brings it to life. First, Sharpe’s fans will remember that he’s the son of a prostitute and is a “natural killer, whether with musket, rifle, bayonet or sword.” He’s married to Teresa, a beautiful and ferocious resistance fighter nicknamed La Aguja, or The Needle. Lieutenant Love, nicknamed Cupid, speaks tentatively and looks like he’ll be a liability but grows into his job. After a dramatic success, he cries out to Saint Barbara in heaven, “Oh Babs!…You glorious bitch!” Most colorful is the resistance leader El Héroe, who strains credulity with his windbaggery. “They fear me!…They stay in their forts and I rule the land!” Apparently no one has ever seen him fight, and Sharpe’s men refer to him as El Cobarde, or The Coward. “I have the blood of kings and nobles,” he brags to Sharpe, who retorts, “Then I’m glad I’ve got the blood of the gutter in me.” Oh yes, and there’s El Sacerdote, the priest who “gives his French prisoners the last rites before he cuts their throats.”

Gripping action that’s not for the fainthearted.