Sharpe's Escape
Bernard Cornwell
 Set in 1810, the novel finds Captain Richard Sharpe threatened as commander of the South Essex Regiment Light Company by the family politics of the Regiment's Commanding Officer. While the British and their Portuguese allies see off the French assault at Bussaco, Sharpe becomes embroiled in a private feud with the criminal Ferragus, whom he pursues from the abandoned town of Coimbra back towards the massive defensive works which Wellington has ordered built at Torres Vedras.