Sharpe’s Sword gives our hero the chance to cuckold a Spaniard married to a French spy. Oh, and Wellington wins the battle of Salamanca in 1812.
I realized why these novels are reading faster and faster. Bernard Cornwell uses stock paragraphs (pages?) to describe certain things in each book. Of course, there is little reason to come up with new ways to describe the same gun or military manuever or the like. Cornwell clearly assumes nothing, which is disappointing only because this is the thirteenth book in the series, chronologically, and the third in order of writing. If you’ve gotten this far, you know all about the seven-barrelled gun that Sergeant Harper carries. I know I gloss over those words without a thought in my head. And yet I still enjoy these books. Onwards!