I'm sort of glad I waited to begin this series until it was virtually complete, since they're written out of order by their internal chronology. It's mid-1810 now, and Wellington has finally gotten a grip on the French attempts to sew up Portugal and thereby deny access to the entire coastline of Europe. He's backing slowly down the coast and destroying crops, food stores, grazing animals, windmills, and anything else that might be of use to the enemy. When he gets to the big ridge at Bussaco, he forms up his Anglo-Portuguese army (still considerably small than the French force) and waits. Marshal Massena was far too confident and didn't realize that British training of the previously unimpressive Portuguese forces had made them a serious threat. Cornwell's at-length account of the resulting battle, the most famous in Portugal's history, is quite accurate and almost physically exhausting to read in its descriptions of individual unit actions and grand strategy. Later, the British withdrawal leads the French to their appalled discovery of the Lines of Torres Vedras, a massive series of fortifications crossing the peninsula on which Lisbon is locating, the construction of which was (amazingly) kept secret. (It was financed by the Spanish coin recovered in _Sharpe's Gold,_ by the way.) The confrontation at the end between the French skirmishers and the South Essex's Light Company before the defensive fortifications is also very well done. Meanwhile, Capt. Richard Sharpe has been temporarily pushed out of his command by his colonel's attempts to give a leg up to a drunken brother-in-law. Then Sharpe runs up against a Portuguese intelligence officer trying to play both sides of the street, just in case the French win. And he has a thuggish brother, a huge man, who enjoys killing his enemies by beating them to death with his bare hands. Sharpe and Sgt. Harper don't fight fair, though. Oh, and there's a fair maiden to be rescued as well -- an English governess unlike any of Sharpe's women in the earlier volumes. This is an exciting and, as usual, historically accurate story, both in its broad events and in its details.

I envy all those who read the Richard Sharpe novels in the chronological order of the events contained in them rather than the order in which they were published. For these newer readers, Sharpe's Escape contains all of the best features of the earlier (in chronology) nine novels: an easy-to-despise implacable foe (Ferragus), a slimy traitor (Captain Ferreira), a spectacular battle (Bussaco) where all could be lost if Sharpe doesn't take the right action (a whispered aside to Colonel Lawford), Sharpe dropping in to rescue another impossible combat situation, lots of ill-gotten goods at stake, a beautiful woman to beguile Sharpe, a seemingly impossible problem for Sharpe to solve when he's trapped in the cellar to a warehouse, and justice for the dastardly types.

So what's it all about? Wellington continues to try to hold Portugal against the French. Napoleon has sent Marshal Massena with a huge force to drive the British and Portuguese off the peninsula. Wellington has well-prepared defenses waiting in front of Lisbon, but he wants to starve the French army as much as possible so that attrition will make the conflict short. The French steal food rather than buy it, and Wellington leads a scorched earth program.

As the book opens, Sharpe is grumpy. He's been called back after a week rather than the month's leave his was promised and Colonel Lawford has stuck him with a lieutenant he cannot stand, Slingsby. Sharpe doesn't see how any good can come of all this.

Sharpe is sent to destroy a signaling tower so that the French won't be able to use it. In the process, he discovers the Portuguese brothers, Major Ferreira and Ferragus, preparing to sell a lot of flour to the French. Sharpe and his men quickly put a stock to that, and there's soon a dusty hilltop covered with spoiled flour.

Ferragus employs his brother to exact some revenge on the eve of Bussaco, and Sharpe is lucky to survive. Sharpe is enraged to find that Lawford chooses to relieve him of leading the South Essex so that Slingsby can look good (they are brothers-in-law and Lawford has promised his wife to help Slingsby).

Afterward, Sharpe refuses to apologize to Slingsby and is once again turned into a quartermaster. The plot thickens as we find that Ferragus and Ferreira have compiled enough materiel to keep the French going for weeks . . . and plan to sell the goods to the French. Sharpe steps in to stop this . . . and things go horribly wrong. How will he survive?

This book is excellent from beginning to end. You'll have great fun with the story!

This is a worthy addition to the Sharpe canon. Ripping battle scenes, a nasty villain, and interesting plot complications. My only quibble(and it probably only bugs me) is that I wish the Adverb Police would visit Mr. Cornwell. He has a character say something"briskly" not once, not twice, but three times, all within the space of 2 pages. Surely the proof reader should catch that. But that is really a minor annoyance in a very enjoyable read.