Sharpe's Havoc (Reviews)

SHARPE LET LOOSE TO THUNDER AGAIN by Graham Ball
Sun 30 Mar 2003
Sunday Express

In common with tens of thousands of other now committed readers, I first encountered the 19th century, war-torn world of tough-nut rifleman Richard Sharpe on television. The adventures of the rough-and-ready British Army officer, played by Sean Bean, as much at odds with authority as with his Napoleonic foes, made great viewing and the books are even better. Sharpe’s Havoc is 19th in a triumphant series of action-packed dramas that have deservedly earned their author immense international success. Sharpe’s Havoc is set in Portugal in the spring of 1809 and sees the doughty Greenjacket lieutenant reunited with Sergeant Patrick Harper. Despite this promising start, things start to go wrong for the pair when they are sent on a mission to save a British mother and daughter stranded in the besieged city of Oporto. Sharpe, together with his loyal sergeant and a score of riflemen, joins forces with a group of fugitive Portruguese soldiers in an attempt to fight their way back to the British lines. Alas, malign forces, in the form of sadistic Colonel Christopher, who plans their sacrifice for his own vainglorious ends, are at work. Against the backdrop of the arrival of Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, to lead the Peninsula campaign, Sharpe fights for his life. As always, the attention to historical detail is convincing and the narrative thunders along like a cavalry charge.