Dear Mr. Cornwell:

I am plowing my way through the entire  Sharpe series and it took a bit to realize that while I am reading them in chronological order the books were not published in that order.  So I stopped asking myself why on earth Richard didn’t just put a bullet into Hakeswill at any convenient point in the first three books (in chrono order according to Richard’s life)  rather than 1. leave him to the Sultan Tippoo’s tigers (they had already eaten) or 2.  have the elephant crush him (Hakeswill had a knife and poked the elephant with it).  But how did he get out of the snake pit? By the way, I’m glad he’s dead (Obediah that is).  Did someone hear him screaming for help and they fished him out?  Were the snakes so terrified of a man so repugnant that even a cobra wouldn’t go near him?  Did he therefore just tie all these terrified snakes together make a rope and climb out? Just curious.  Thanks for you your time.  Oh, and I am an archer so naturally I read The Grail Quest series as well and enjoyed it.

Katherine