Sharpe's Havoc (Reviews)

‘HAVOC’ PROVES STOPLIGHT PAGE-TURNER by Virginia Wilcox
Sun 18 May 2003
The Herald, Rock Hill, SC

I have a new obsession: 19th-century British military history. The fault can be laid squarely at Sean Bean’s sneakers. Bean (5-foot-11, blond and green-eyed) is the British actor who played British soldier Richard Sharpe in a series of 14 made-for-TV BBC films in the ’90s. He’s why, when desperate for something to read one day, I picked up Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe’s Battle and wandered onto a path of green jackets and shakos from which there is no retreat.

While Bean got me into Sharpe, Cornwell has kept me there. He spins a wickedly dulcet tale, easy on the ear and not too taxing on the brain, even though you are getting a smattering of history in the reading. I started in on Battle, and next thing I knew I’d read four of Sharpe’s exploits and was hooked. It didn’t matter in the least that Cornwell’s Sharpe was dark-haired and an inch over 6 feet.

The latest installment, Sharpe’s Havoc, is 19th in the novel series (seventh if you’re reading them chronologically). It picks up the tale of Sharpe and his company of elite riflemen in Portugal in 1809, after the retreat to Corunna and before their taking of a French eagle at Talavera, filling a time gap between Cornwell’s earlier Rifles and Eagle. Once again, Sharpe is fighting off the French while undertaking some mission handed down from his superiors. This time, he’s to find and protect a young woman, Kate Savage (the necessary love interest). But he also has to deal with the annoying British foreign service officer Col. Christopher, who’s playing both sides of the war. The action is intense, the battle scenes riveting – it had me turning pages while waiting on stoplights to turn – and the characters are inviting enough for both old fans and newcomers alike. Havoc is a good introduction to Sharpe, but I’d recommend reading them in order. Just ignore the minor inconsistencies created by Cornwell writing them out of chronological sequence. I’m on to Company next, learning more about the Peninsular War than any history teacher ever told me.