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Sharpe's Havoc [Hardcover]

Bernard Cornwell
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)

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Book Description

7 April 2003

The latest book in the brilliant, bestselling Sharpe series brings Sharpe to Portugal, and reunites him with Harper.

It is 1809 and Lieutenant Sharpe, who belongs to a small British army that has a precarious foothold in Portugal, is sent to look for Kate Savage, the daughter of an English wine shipper. But before he can discover the missing girl, the French onslaught on Portugal begins and the city of Oporto falls.

Sharpe is stranded behind enemy lines, but he has Patrick Harper, he has his riflemen and he has the assistance of a young, idealistic Portuguese officer. Together, they have to find the missing girl and extricate themselves from the entanglements cast by Colonel Christopher, a mysterious Englishman who has his own ideas on how the French can be ejected from Portugal. Those ideas are as fantastic as they are dangerous, but the French are rampant, Lisbon is threatened and Christopher sees Sharpe and his riflemen as the only obstacles to his subtle scheme.

But there is a newly arrived British commander in Lisbon, Sir Arthur Wellesley, and just when Sharpe and his men seem doomed, Sir Arthur mounts his own counter-attack, an operation that will send the French army reeling back into the northern mountains. Sharpe becomes a hunter instead of the hunted and he will exercise a dreadful revenge on the men who double-crossed him.

Sharpe's Havoc is a classic Sharpe story, a return to Portugal in the company of Sergeant Patrick Harper, Captain Hogan and Sharpe's beloved Greenjackets, who can turn a battle as fast as Cornwell's readers can turn a page.



Product details

  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins; First Edition edition (7 April 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0007120109
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007120109
  • Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 17 x 4.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 589,069 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon Review

One thing is as sure as death and taxes: that each successive Bernard Cornwell novel will be as exhilarating as its predecessor. Sharpe's Havoc continues the trend, demonstrating once again why the Richard Sharpe books by Cornwell are among the most cherished examples of historical derring-do around. While the novels are all assiduously detailed, with a precise sense of period, Cornwell knows how essential it is that his hero, the danger-prone Richard Sharpe, is as vividly characterised as ever. True to form, in Sharpe's Havoc we never lose sight of the character of the protagonist and the many members of the idiosyncratic supporting cast.

This time, we are taken to the spring of 1809 when a few British soldiers are stationed in Lisbon as Marshal Soult undertakes his assault on the garrison of Northern Portugal. It's not for Sharpe and his trusty crew of riflemen to dwell on the finer points of politics when they are sent into the city of Oporto to save the lives of two British women who have elected to stay. But when one of the women, Kate Savage, goes missing, Sharpe (along with Sergeant Patrick Harper and several battle-hardened colleagues) finds himself besieged in the city when the bridge over the river falls to the enemy. The English are forced on in a desperate journey back to the safety of the British encampment, but things become very murky when an enigmatic English officer informs them that they will be staying in the hellhole that is Northern Portugal.

Cornwell admirers will know exactly what to expect, and all the heady pleasures that distinguished such earlier books as Sharpe's Battle and Sharpe's Company are fully in place here, with the added impetus that comes from a notably picaresque narrative. All the central characters are drawn with the customary forcefulness, and instead of the expected tension and release that is the hallmark of most Cornwell novels, there's a steadily increasing excitement engendered here that leads to an all-stops-out finale. --Barry Forshaw

Review

The 19th novel in the bestselling Sharpe series is set in 1809. Sharpe and his squad of riflemen, with Sergeant Patrick Harper, is in Oporto on the River Douro in northern Portugal, trying to rescue a British mother and her 19-year-old daughter. The daughter, Kate, disappears, and Sharpe has to find her, but is cut off when the bridge is broken. They join forces with a fugitive group of Portuguese soldiers in order to fight their way back to the British lines, but something happens which cancels their orders. Then Sir Arthur Wellesley arrives to take command in the south, and Sharpe breathes again. It is a great story, brilliantly told, which will undoubtedly sell well this coming spring, and is always lively and entertaining.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Sharpe as ever! 25 April 2003
Format:Hardcover
For long-time fans like me who found "Sharpe's Prey" a bit below par, I'm pleased to say that this one returns to first principles, frog-bashing in the Peninsula; and the author is back on form. If you wondered what happened to Sharpe, Harper & Co. after they joined forces on the retreat to Vigo (Sharpe's Rifles, Jan.1809) and before Talavera (Sharpe's Eagle, July 1809), here's the answer. The Greenjackets are in the wilds of Portugal, where the best Sharpe stories are set, on a mission for Capt. Hogan, the future spy-master. Marshal Soult, 'Duke of Damnation' and aspiring King of Portugal, is closing in. Is all lost? Wait! an obscure sepoy general called Wellesley has landed at Lisbon ...

I'll leave the plot there except to say that it's a ripping yarn (and I've been reading them for twenty years). We meet an upper-class villain fit to take on Sir Henry Simmerson; a beautiful, runaway heiress; and a young Portuguese officer of character and education who has a thing or two to learn from Sharpe. Deja vu? Well, some of the best vus are deja. There have been better ones than this but not many. The atmosphere is as thick as Dan Hagman's tea. There are passages of real sardonic humour, which comes as a relief after the last outing. The action sequences are many and unsurpassed. My only regret is that an old favourite, Sweet William, hasn't shown up yet.

The time slots are filling up but Cornwell makes good use of them. Sharpe and Harper march again. What are you waiting for? And if you didn't understand any of the above, still read the book.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Sharpe has his revenge 17 Sep 2007
By Didier TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
'Sharpe's Havoc' is set in the spring of 1809: the French, under Marshal Soult, have just taken Oporto and now effectively control northern Portugal. During the retreat from Oporto Sharpe and his men from the 95th Rifles find themselves cut off from the British army, and must take to the hills. Meanwhile, rumour has it that Sir Arthur Wellesly (the later Duke of Wellington) is coming out to Portugal to take on the French. But Sharpe has more to worry about than the French as he is confronted with a dubious Colonel Christopher, detached from the Foreign Office...

This is a novel in the best Sharpe-tradition, full of action, nothing too complicated in the plot, and easy to read (it took me slightly more than a day of non-stop reading). The final chapters in the hills of northern Portugal when Sharpe exacts his revenge are among the best I've read so far in any Sharpe-novel.

By the way, if you're planning to read the Sharpe-novels chronologically it's good to know that, contrary to what it says on the inside cover pages of the HarperCollins paperbacks, this novel does not come after but BEFORE 'Sharpe's Eagle' (which is set in July 1809 during the Talavera-campaign).

So now it's on to 'Sharpe's Gold'. I do love the smell of a fresh Sharpe-novel in the morning! ;-)
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Feels more formulaic than others in the series 23 April 2011
By Mr. Ross Maynard VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
"Sharpes Havoc" is not as good as the others in the series I have read. It feels much more formulaic, and you can pretty much sketch out what is going to happen in the book after reading the first four pages. The villain of the story, Colonel Christopher is a real pantomime baddie (boo hiss, "he's behind you"): very unconvincing; and the lady of the story has no real character at all. That said, Bernard Cornwell does write well and the battle scenes, particularly towards the end, are thrilling. It's readable but a long way from the best in the series.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars Audio CD
I tried, unsuccessfully as it turned out, to order a hardback edition of the book's format, as opposed to paperback, not an audio version. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Donus
5.0 out of 5 stars Havoc?.....not at all! A great read.
This was my first purchase for my new Kindle. As usual, 'Sharpe's Havoc' follows all the other books in Bernard Cornwell's fantastic 'Sharpe' series; it is an extremely good read... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Frank Hawley
3.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre
Sharpe's Havoc is at best a mediocre book, possibly the worst in a series which in entertaining and at times thrilling. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Giorgos Karagiannis
5.0 out of 5 stars Sharpes Havoc
I just love the Sharpe books, Bernard Cornwell has a cracking way of writing, I am hoping to get all of them on kindle. There's even a bit of history mingled with the fiction. Read more
Published 5 months ago by angie bailey
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb adventure
Like the previous six books in the Sharpe's series this is a superb read. It is so well written that you can imagine being on the battlefield with the 95th. Rifles. Read more
Published 5 months ago by John Butler
4.0 out of 5 stars A superb soldier's yarn.
Cornwell tells a good story that is hard to put down. Sharpe's Havoc is worthy continuation of his story with fascinating and accurate insights into the political and military... Read more
Published 5 months ago by probiww
4.0 out of 5 stars Good fun but a little formulaic
First off, let me say that I enjoyed this outing in the Sharpe series. It's full of the usual ingredients, enemies on both sides of the fence, trouble in the ranks, a pretty woman... Read more
Published 6 months ago by MrGrumpie
5.0 out of 5 stars Sharpe's Havoc Review
Another very good book by Bernard Cornwell. I am a fan of his books, so enjoyed this book a lot.
Published 8 months ago by Mr R Boyce
1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your time
Like military Mills & Boon. Caricature rather than characterisation. Plot dribbles on. The only interesting thing is the historical information (of which there is precious... Read more
Published 20 months ago by thegoodbook
5.0 out of 5 stars As good as all the Sharpe books
Great books but best read in the date order of the battles rather than dae of the origional publication, which is very higel de pigeldy!
Published on 23 Feb 2010 by RobinD
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