Sharpe’s Devil

by Bernard Cornwell Book 26 in the Sharpe series.

First published 1992

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In 1820, the retired Sharpe and Patrick Harper travel to Chile to find their missing friend Blas Vivar, the former captain-general of the Spanish colony. Their journey takes them first to Saint Helena, where Sharpe meets the exiled Napoleon, and then into the Chilean struggle against Spanish rule. On land and at sea, they become involved in political corruption, rebellion and the campaign of the naval commander Thomas Cochrane.

The Chilean setting gives Sharpe a final encounter with the revolutionary wars that followed the collapse of Spanish imperial authority in the Americas. Cochrane’s naval operations bring him into a conflict unlike Wellington’s disciplined campaigns, while Vivar’s disappearance makes the politics personally significant. Retirement proves unable to protect Sharpe from the loyalties formed during earlier wars.