SUMMARY: "It is 1810, and in Napoleon's determination to conquer Portugal -- and push the British back to the sea -- he sends his largest army yet across the Spanish frontier. But between the Portuguese border and Napoleon's seemingly certain victory are twoobstacles -- a wasted land, stripped of food by Wellington's orders, and Captain Richard Sharpe. But Sharpe is in trouble. The captain of the Light Company is threatened from inside and out: First by an incompetent British officer, who by virtue of family connections is temporarily given Sharpe's command. An even greater danger is posed by two corrupt Portuguese brothers -- Major Ferreira, a high-ranking officer in the army of Portugal, and his brother, nicknamed ""Ferragus"" (after a legen-dary Portuguese giant), who makes no claims to respectability, preferring instead to rule by crude physical strength and pure intimidation. Together the brothers have developed a devious plot to ingratiate themselves with the French invaders who are threatening to become Portugal's new rulers. Sharpe's interference in the first stage of their plan earns the undying enmity of the brothers. Ferragus vows revenge and plots a merciless trap that seems certain to kill Sharpe and his intimates -- battle-tested ally Sergeant Harper, the Portuguese officer Jorge Vicente, and a prickly but lovely English governess. As the city of Coimbra is burned and pillaged, Sharpe and his companions plot a daring escape, ensuring that Ferragus will follow on toward Lisbon, into the jaws of a snare laid by Wellington -- the massive lines of Torres Vedras, a daring and ingenious last stand against the invaders. There, beneath the British guns, Sharpe is reunited with his shattered but grateful company, and meets his enemies in a thrilling and decisive fight.

Richard Sharpe and his company are part of a small expeditionary force sent to break a bridge across the River Guadiana. What begins as a brilliant piece of soldiering turns into disaster, thanks to the brutal savagery of the French Colonel Vandal who is leading his battalion to join the siege of Cadiz. Sharpe extricates a handful of men from the debacle and is driven south into the threatened city. There, in Cadiz, he discovers more than one enemy. Many Spaniards doubt Britain′s motives and believe their future would be brighter if they made peace with the French, and one of them, a baleful priest, secures a powerful weapon to break the British alliance. He will use a beautiful whore and the letters she received from a wealthy man. The priest will use blackmail, and Sharpe must defeat him in a sinister war of knife and treachery in the dark alleys of the city. Yet the alliance will only survive if the French siege can be lifted. An allied army marches from the city to take on the more powerful French and, once again, a brilliant piece of soldiering turns to disaster, this time because the Spanish refuse to fight. A small British force is trapped by a French army, and the only hope now lies with the outnumbered redcoats who, on a hill beside the sea, refuse to admit defeat. And there, in the sweltering horror of Barrosa, Sharpe finds Colonel Vandal again.

Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro, May 1811 The Complete Sharpe Collection with a new introduction by the author In the spring of 1811, while quartered in the crumbling Portuguese fort of San Isidro, Richard Sharpe and his men are attacked by an elite French unit commanded by the formidable Brigadier Loup, and suffer heavy losses. Sharpe has already clashed once with Loup, and the Frenchman has sworn to have his revenge. After the attack, Sharpe is faced with the ruin of his career and reputation, as the army′s high command tries to blame him for the disaster. With thousands of French troops massing at a tiny village nearby, Sharpe′s only hope is to redeem himself on the battlefield. To save his honour, Sharpe must lead his men to glory in the narrow streets of Fuentes de Oñoro.

Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Badajoz, January to April 1812 The Complete Sharpe Collection with a new introduction by the author It was a hard winter. For Richard Sharpe it was the worst he could remember. He had lost his command to a wealthy man - a man with money to buy the promotion Sharpe coveted. And from England came his oldest enemy - the ruthless, indestructible Hakeswill - utterly intent on ruining Sharpe. But Sharpe is determined to change his luck. And the surest way is to lead the bloody attack on the impregnable fortress town of Badajoz, a road to almost certain death - or unimagined glory...

The bitter rivalry between Sharpe and the ruthless Frenchman Colonel Leroux is brought to life against the vivid canvas of the Peninsular War. Richard Sharpe is once again at war. But this time his enemy is a single man - the ruthless, sadistic Colonel Leroux. Sharpe's mission is to safeguard El Mirador, the spy whose network of agents is vital to the British victory. So Sharpe must enter a new world of political and military intrigue. And in the unfamiliar surroundings of aristocratic Spanish society, his only guide is the beautiful Marquesa - a woman with her own secrets to conceal...

This is a stand-alone short story -- It is the summer of 1812 and Richard Sharpe, newly recovered from the wound he received in the fighting at Salamanca, is given an easy duty; to guard a Commissary Officer posted to an obscure Spanish fort where there are some captured French muskets to repair. But unknown to the British, the French are planning a raid and Sharpe is in for a fight!

A classic Sharpe adventure: Richard Sharpe and the Defence of Portugal, Christmas 1812. Newly promoted, Major Richard Sharpe leads his small force into the biting cold of the winter mountains. His task is to rescue a group of well-born women held hostage by a rabble of deserters. And one of the renegades is Sergeant Hakeswill, Sharpe's most implacable enemy. But the rescue is the least of Sharpe′s problems. He must face a far greater threat. With only the support of his own company and the new Rocket Troop - the last word in military incompetence - to back his gamble, Sharpe cannot afford even to recognize the prospect of defeat. For to surrender - or to fail - would mean the end of the war for the Allied armies...

A classic Sharpe adventure: Richard Sharpe and the Vitoria Campaign, February to June 1813. Major Richard Sharpe awaits the opening shots of the army's new campaign with grim expectancy. Victory depends on the increasingly fragile alliance between Britain and Spain - an alliance that must be maintained at any cost. But Sharpe's enemy, Pierre Ducos, seizes a chance to both destroy the alliance and take a personal revenge on Sharpe. And when the lovely spy La Marquesa takes a hand in the game, Sharpe finds himself caught in a web of deadly intrigue and becomes a fugitive, hunted by enemy and ally alike.

Major Sharpe should be fighting the French - but his worst enemies are in England. Major Richard Sharpe's men are in mortal danger - not from the French, but from the bureaucrats of Whitehall. Unless reinforcements can be brought from England, the depleted South Essex will be disbanded, their troops scattered throughout the army. Determined not to see his regiment die, Sharpe returns to England and uncovers a nest of well-bred, high-ranking traitors, any one of whom could utterly destroy his career with a word, or a stroke of the pen. Sharpe is forced into the most desperate gamble of his life - and not even the influence of the Prince Regent may be enough to save him.

SUMMARY:Sharpe's Christmas: "...This is a stand alone book with two short stories --Richard Sharpe, commanding the Prince of Wale's Own Volunteers, finds himself in a high, hard place with an enemy brigade on one side and a desperate force of Frenchmen fleeing their defeat in Spain on the other. Common sense suggests that he must avoid a fight, but it is Christmastime, and miracles are supposed to happen at the dark heart of the year, and so Sharpe makes a stand, and in doing so ends up giving the enemy an unexpected gift."

A classic Sharpe adventure: Richard Sharpe and the Winter Campaign, 1814. The invasion of France is under way, and the British Navy has called upon the services of Major Richard Sharpe. He and a small force of Riflemen are to capture a fortress and secure a landing on the French coast. It is to be one of the most dangerous missions of his career. Through the incompetence of a recklessly ambitious naval commander and the machinations of his old enemy, French spymaster Pierre Ducos, Sharpe finds himself abandoned in the heart of enemy territory, facing overwhelming forces and the very real prospect of defeat. He has no alternative but to trust his fortunes to an American privateer - a man who has no love for the British invaders.

It is 1814. After a long and exhausting series of battles the British and Spanish armies are pushing into south-western France from Spain. Rumours abound that Napoleon has surrendered, been murdered, or fled. But before the French are finally defeated, and Sharpe can lay down his sword, one of the bloodiest conflicts of the war must be fought: the battle for the city of Toulouse. Sharpe's war is not over with the victory. Accused of stealing a consignment of Napoleon's treasure en route to Elba, Sharpe must elude his captors and track down the unknown enemy who has tried to incriminate him. Accompanied by his comrade, Captain William Frederickson, Major Richard Sharpe pursues with energy, venom and unflinching resolve an ingenious and devastating revenge.

Richard Sharpe and the Waterloo Campaign, 15 June to 18 June 1815. It is 1815. Sharpe is serving on the personal staff of the inexperienced and incompetent Young Frog, William, Prince of Orange, who has been given command of a large proportion of the Allied force. More concerned with cutting a dash at a grand society ball in Brussels, the Young Frog refuses to listen to Sharpe's scouting reports of an enormous army marching towards them with the lately returned Napoleon at its head. When the Battle of Waterloo commences, Sharpe has to stand by and watch military folly on a grand scale. But at the height of the conflict, just as victory seems impossible, he makes a momentous decision. With his usual skill, courage and determination he takes command and the most hard-fought and bloody battle of his career becomes Sharpe's own magnificent triumph.

Five years after the Battle of Waterloo, Sharpe's peaceful retirement in Normandy is shattered by a plea for help. An old friend, Don Blas Vivar, is missing in Chile, reported dead at rebel hands - a report his wife refuses to believe. She appeals to Sharpe to find out the truth. So it is that the reluctant Sharpe and his constant companion in adventure, Patrick Harper, find themselves bound for Chile via St Helena, where they have a fateful meeting with the fallen Emperor Napoleon. Sharpe and Harper are convinced that they are on their way to collect a corpse; neither can imagine the dangers that await them in Chile.

Patricia Cornwell has asixth sense about the menand women in blue. InHornet's Nest, her page-turning novel aboutcrime and police in Charlotte, North Carolina,Cornwell moved behind the badges of thesereal-life heroes to uncover flesh-and-bloodcharacters who strode through her pages to revealvulnerable, passionate, brave, sometimesdoubting, always fascinating figures. In Southern Cross, Cornwell takes us evencloser to the personal and professional lives ofbig-city police, in a story of corruption, scandal,and robberies that escalate to murder. This time,her setting is Richmond, Virginia, where CharlottePolice Chief Judy Hammer has been brought byan NIJ grant to clean up the police force. Reelingfrom the recent death of her husband, andresented by the police force, city manager, andmayor of Richmond, Hammer is joined by herdeputy chief Virginia West and rookie Andy Brazilon the most difficult assignment of her career. Inthe face of overwhelming public scrutiny, the triomust bring truth, order, and sanity to a city introuble.

SUMMARY: A Powerful and evocative story of the civil war'sfirst battle and the men who fought itWhen Richmond landowner Washington Faulconer snatches young Nate Starbuck from the grip of a Yankee-hating mob, Nate is both grateful and awed by his idealistic rescuer. Turning his back forever on the life he left in Boston, Nate agrees to join the newly formed Flaulconer's Legion, even though it means fighting against his native North.But Nate's dilemma is only one of many within the Legion. Faulconer's own son cannot bring himself to fight, while his daughter's cheating fiancé plots for control of the family fortune. As they come together to march into battle, the men are prepared to start a war ... but they aren't ready for how they -- and the nation -- will be forever changed by the oaths they have sworn for their beloved South.

SUMMARY: Nathaniel Starbuck is a Copperhead: a northerner fighting for the rebel South in America's Civil War. Aided by his spymaster Allan Pinkerton, General McClellan is convinced he can lead the northerners to the gates of the rebel capital of Richmond. Starbuck, expelled from his regiment by its bombastic founder, Washington Faulconer, must travel a hard road before he can rejoin his comrades. It takes him through the savage prisons of Richmond, across the blood-sodden battlefields of Virginia, even into the high command of the northern army. For Starbuck has joined the shadowy war of betrayal and espionage, where nothing is certain and no one may be trusted. " Among good reads, it's a rattler." (Mail on Sunday)

EDITORIAL REVIEW: This rousing and splendid Civil War series continues with the story of Nate Starblick as he serves under General Robert E. Lee himself, culminating in the famous, bloody battle of Antietam. "The best thing to hit Civil War fiction." --*The Washington Times* "Cornwell is more than a great stroyteller. [He] has woven an excellent history of the Civil War in eastern theater." --*Flint Journal*