The San Francisco Public Library came through with flying colors, sending me email notice that all three of the Sharpe novels I had requested were awaiting my pickup a couple of weeks ago. The first one I read was Sharpe’s Fortress. This novel inserts Richard Sharpe, our British military hero, into the assault on Gawilghur, a massive fortress perched on a cliff, and a narrow neck of land, too. Bernard Cornwell is helpful enough to provide five photos (three on the first page). Story rolls right along, and — as always — it’s interesting to learn that the majority of the tale is true, though of course Mister Sharpe was, ahem, inserted into the proceedings. Both Dodd and Hakeswill (two of Sharpe’s enemies from earlier books) suffer their just desserts here.
While trying to find a picture of Gawilghur, I learned that you can take in other historic spots on the subcontinent in the Indian Mutiny battlefield tour. Hmmm… not sure that name is inspiring, let alone friendly.
Note: thanks to 43 Folders, I’ve learned that RSS feeds are available for “checked-out and on-request books” via ELF. I’ll try this out when I make my next batch of requests.