Bernard Cornwell: Sharpe's Regiment

Click to see in Amazon

Sharpe finds the missing Regiment
I loved every minute of yet another great historical military adventure. This was my second experience of Bernard Cornwell's prolific series about the adventures of Richard Sharpe, an English soldier and military adventurer in the European wars of the early years of the 19th Century - and I am now really an addict.

Major Richard Sharpe finds that, while his regiment is running out of supplies and replacements, army records say that there is a full regiment and stores in England ready to help. Sharpe goes back to England to find out what has happened to the missing regiment. Finding the regiment is not too hard but overcoming the influence of the highly placed traitors who are selling (crimping) the regiment's resources to the highest bidder for other regiments is much harder.  Getting the replacements to Spain is even harder still.

Sharpe is not your standard military hero - he joined the army to escape jail and became an officer through sheer military brilliance and leadership. Sharpe isn't rich and mostly sleeps in the open with his men and leads by example not authority. He is intolerant of the competence of most other officers who come from rich aristocratic backgrounds. He is also a consummate ladies man.

While Cornwell must have taken some historical licence, his descriptions of military life give a fascinating insight into how military campaigns were fought at that time, and the hardships of battle, especially hand-to-hand combat

This review will not show up as an Amazon verified purchase because I read this particular story as part of one of several 3 book economy Kindle bundles of the Richard Sharpe series which are available in Australia and the UK but regrettably not in the US. This is Book 17 in the Sharpe series and now I am addicted I now plan to read through the series in order, bundle by bundle.