Amid rumors that Napoleon is dead, or has run away, Richard Sharpe has one last battle to fight before he can lay down his sword, in this 21st book of the Sharpe chronicles, from 1989. Little does he know the 1814 battle for Toulouse will be one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Napoleonic wars, but it is far from Sharpe's only battle. Accused of stealing Napoleon's treasure, Sharpe must discover the unknown enemy who has tried to frame him-and his revenge is ingenious and devastating. Bernard Cornwell grew up with the Hornblower novels, following C.S. Forester's fictional hero through Lord Nelson's navy during the Napoleonic wars, and created his army counterpart in Richard Sharpe, a rifleman in Lord Wellington's land campaign. Cornwell has produced 24 novels and stories in the series, which traces Sharpe's career from 1799 and the Siege of Seringapatam in India to an encounter with the exiled Napoleon himself in 1821, and inspired the British television series Sharpe, starring Sean Bean.
