Sharpe’s Prey - Softcover

Cornwell, Bernard

4.07

11,539 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006513107 ISBN 13: 9780006513100

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2002

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The eighteenth novel in this bestselling series takes Sharpe to battle in Copenhagen.

It is 1807 and Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, recently returned to England, is offered a new job: go to Copenhagen, help the Honourable John Lavisser deliver a bribe, and so stop a war. It seems very easy.

But nothing is easy in a Europe stirred by French ambitions. The Danes possess a battle fleet that could replace every warship the French lost at Trafalgar and Napoleon’s forces are gathering to take it. The British must stop them.

Sharpe is ordered to protect Lavisser against the French agents who infest the Danish capital. It is a shadow war of spies and brutality in which Sharpe is a sacrificial pawn. But sometimes pawns can change the game and Sharpe, when he discovers a traitor in their midst, makes his own rules.

As the Danish army attempts to raise the British siege, it is met by Sir Arthur Wellesley with a force of redcoats and riflemen. Copenhagen is doomed. In nights of merciless British bombardment, Sharpe must protect a woman, hunt his traitor and stay alive.

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Review:

All of the Sharpe novels, not just the new one, Sharpe's Prey, feature genuinely complex plotting in which the reader is kept engaged not just by a central conflict but by a whole host of subplots handled as adeptly as his main narrative. How does Bernard Cornwell maintain such a high standard in his tales of historical derring-do and danger? The genre is a touch overcrowded these days, but Cornwell is unquestionably in the upper echelons, with a consistency that must give most of his rivals pause. It isn't just the formula that makes these books work so well (high-powered, vividly described action, conflicted protagonists risking both their lives and careers, impressive historical detail), it is another factor that has distinguished the author's books since his early work.

The year is 1807; Lieutenant Richard Sharpe is planning to leave the army. Against his better judgment, he is persuaded to accompany the Hon John Lavisser to Copenhagen in what is essentially an act of political skulduggery: they are to deliver a bribe and (hopefully) avert a war. But with the French ensuring that Europe remains at boiling point, Sharpe finds himself protecting his charge against French agents and struggling to ensure that the Danish battle fleet is not used to replace every French ship destroyed at Trafalgar. Sharpe is a character we know well and like, and his customary characteristics (tenacity, bloody-mindedness) are well to the fore here, but, as always, the other characters are equally strikingly drawn: Lavisser is a splendidly complex figure, as are several of Sharpe's nemeses. But it's that wonderfully adroit orchestration of action and plot that keeps the pulse racing, with the bombardment of Copenhagen and the massive bloodshed resulting in a truly impressive set piece:

Sharpe, from his vantage point on the dune, could see the smoke wreathing the wall. The city's copper spires and red roofs showed above the churning cloud. A dozen houses were burning there, fired by the Danish shells that hissed across the canal. Three windmills had their sales tethered against the blustering wind that blew the smoke westwards and fretted the moored fleet to the north of Copenhagen.

--Barry Forshaw

Review:

‘The novel has plenty of action sequences, plenty of well-researched historical titbits, but the true glory of the Sharpe books lies in their characterisation.’ Sunday Telegraph

‘All the perfect ingredients for an action-packed and page-turning read.’ The Times

‘What a very fine writer Mr Cornwell has become’ The Economist

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