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| Date first published | 2002 |  |
| ISBN Number | 0 00712 010 9 | |
| Page Count | 379 h/b | |
| h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback | ||
Sharpe's Havoc
Storyline
It is the spring of 1809 and a small British army is stationed in Lisbon when Marshall Soult begins the French invasion of northern Portugal. No one knows whether the British will fight or leave, but there is little choice for Lieutenant Richard Sharpe and his squad of riflemen, who are sent into the beleaguered city of Oporto to rescue a British mother and daughter who have chosen to stay rather than flee southwards. But what seems like a straight forward mission becomes tangled in betrayal when Kate Savage disappears.Sharpe, with Patrick Harper and a score of riflemen is cut off in the city when the bridge over the river Douro is broken. They join forces with a group of fugitive Portuguese soldiers and try to fight their way back to British lines, but their orders are overridden by a mysterious English Officer, who instructs them to remain in northern Portugal. Colonel Christopher excels in high diplomacy and low cunning, and his activities lead Sharpe and his riflemen into treacherous danger.
While the French are consolidating their hold on the north of the country, Sir Arthur Wellesley, (later the Duke of Wellington), arrives to take command in the south. He immediately mounts his own counter-attack in a brilliant campaign that will rout the French. Sharpe becomes the hunter instead of the hunted and seizes the chance to rescue the missing Kate Savage and pursue the man who thought to sacrifice Sharpe and his riflemen for his own ambition. Amidst the wreckage of a defeated army , in the storm lashed hills of the Portuguese frontier, Sharpe takes a terrible revenge.
Review
This is a classic Sharpe, written to show the true virtues of Sharpe. The lowly lad, gradually making good. It helps the his adversary, is totally amoral, and believes in his own abilities above all others. Colonel Christopher has seen the defeats and the retreat of the British army, and can only see French victory, and so he decides to join the winning side.
Sharpe is one of the few in the Penninsula at the time who has fought with Wellesley, who has yet to really make his mark in the west. Soult is over confident, after his earlier wins, and in true fashion rather than initiating the killing blow when he has the chance dithers, and gets a sound beating for his troubles.
Sharpe never one to take betrayal lightly sets out to right the wrongs of the Colonel, and we see a bit of a chase across Portugal, the saving of the lovely woman, and the gallant Portuguese officer, who only a week before was a school master, who however takes the defence of his homeland very seriously, and the two strike up an unlikely friendship.
The book has fairly fast pace, it follows the usual Cornwell formula of a stretch of action, followed by a pause to catch your breath before launching into the next wave of action. All in all this is a very good story, set possibly in the early stages which is perhaps not quite so well known, as much of the war that follows takes part in Spain.
A really good story to catch up on Richard Sharpe, and it did make me wonder with increasing rank whether Sharpe does lose some of the angry edge, that makes his younger self such a fun character - perhaps it just reflects reality, after all when you have nothing to lose, it doesn't matter what you do, but when you acquire wealth and money then it is only natural to try and protect it and try to get out alive.
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