I’d pretty much given up on the prospect of ever again going into a local book shop and seeing a new Sharpe novel for sale, so I was delighted to come across Sharpe’s Assassin. I waited an almost interminable time to see a paperback edition to buy, the way I’ve experienced every new novel since Sharpe’s Prey. (Prior to that, I borrowed them all from the library, having cut my teeth on the Sean Bean-starring ITV series.) But I finally got it and thoroughly enjoyed it and for the most part was impressed at how seamlessly it picked up from a novel written thirty years previous. One thing stuck out though. At the end of Sharpe’s Waterloo, Sharpe promoted Price to major. But seemingly less than a day later, he’s back to being a captain! Did Sharpe quickly think better of it?! (I know you needed a reason to bring Charlie Morris back into Sharpe’s orbit after a lengthy absence, but it was a bit hard on poor Harry!) The whole thing had a swansong feeling to it so I was happy to accept it as an end to the series…so I was delighted when I checked out your site for the first time in ages (I wanted to avoid spoilers!) and found another new Sharpe novel being advertised! Given I’d heard you didn’t want to go further back into Sharpe’s chronology again, I was anticipating having to fill in the remaining gaps in Sharpe’s Peninsular War career himself (some dark corner of the internet contains my thoughts about what he was up to in 1808) but I’m very happy to see the master himself guiding Sharpe’s journey again. Looking forward to it!

Michael Billinghurst