Sharpe's Fury
Bernard Cornwell
 The action takes place during the winter of 1811; the Peninsular War appears to have been won&mdash;by the French. Cádiz is the only major Spanish town still holding out. From their overwintering strongholds in Portugal, the British sally forth to the River Guadiana with a small force seeking to break a key bridge across the river. The mission is commanded by the young Brigadier General Moon, a man with no love for the upstart rifleman, and meets disaster when Sharpe and the men with him encounter a brutal opponent in the French Colonel Henri Vandal, commander of the 8th Regiment of the Line. Running from this first encounter, Sharpe and his small band of survivors are driven by Vandal into the fortress city of Cádiz, which is already besieged by a French army led by Marshal Victor. In Cadiz Sharpe finds himself in the employment of ambassador Henry Wellesley, younger brother to the Duke of Wellington, who is struggling to keep the various faction in Cadiz united against the French. To remedy this Sharpe finds himself drawn into a deadly game of intrigue between the British spymaster Lord Pumphrey and a shadowy murderous faction that is threatening to break the fragile alliance between Spain and Britain apart. The tensions that have grown up between the British and Spanish allies are heightened by the threat to the city and the only chance seems to be a lifting of the siege. The joint army, led by the British General Thomas Graham and Spanish Aristocrat General Lapena seeks to take the battle to the French; however the Spanish refuse to fight, leaving the British isolated. It also means Richard Sharpe will meet Colonel Vandal for a second time at the Battle of Barrosa.