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Book Review of Sharpe's Enemy: Richard Sharpe and the Defense of Portugal, Christmas 1812 (Sharpe, Bk 15)

Sharpe's Enemy: Richard Sharpe and the Defense of Portugal, Christmas 1812 (Sharpe, Bk 15)
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This is the chronological Book 15 (and original Book 6) of the Richard Sharpe series.

Cornwell makes a slight detour with this book by using a location that doesn't really exist as the site for a battle that never actually happened. Instead, it was a story that served to move the series forward. Sharpe found himself in the company of ally and enemy alike, both old and new, and it made for really great reading. The battle was not the typical siege-style campaign of major importance that dominates the plot in so many of the other books, but was something more informal. Because of that, it somehow made this book seem more fun in comparison.

This was a story about Richard Sharpe and a handful of men who go to the Gateway of God on a rescue mission for one woman and end up fighting several battalions of the French army instead. I couldn't help but think that this was something of a Richard Sharpe version of Home Alone... One guy, trapped, fighting off the bad guys with little more than cunning, a few fireworks, and a battle plan written in crayon.

I enjoyed the character development that was provided for Sharpe, and I really liked some of the new characters (Ducos and Fredrickson, for example) who were introduced. This is yet another page-turning installment to the Richard Sharpe series, and one that I could not put down.