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Book Review of Sharpe's Prey (Sharpe, Bk 5)

Sharpe's Prey (Sharpe, Bk 5)
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This is the chronological Book 5 of the Richard Sharpe series.

Sharpe has finally made it out of India, off the seas, and into the green-jacketed 95th Rifles. As per usual, Sharpe is miserable, down on his luck, and in a scrape. The Army is sailing off to Copenhagen and Sharpe has been left behind.

I felt like this was a mostly-interesting filler book that Cornwell has added to the original series in order to flesh it out a bit. Sharpe finds himself in some interesting situations and a few new transitory characters are introduced, but there is very little that actually changes for Sharpe by the end of the book.

The main conflict centers around Englands plans to capture the Danish fleet before the French beat them to it. The story of the dreadful bombing of Copenhagen is a story that needs to be told, but in the scope of the Richard Sharpe series, this entire book felt more like a very detailed afterthought. It was interesting but not particularly important. Thankfully, Sharpe continues to develop as a character and that is what really made this particular book worth reading.