Sharpe's Enemy (Book #37)

Due to how insanely busy I've been, it took me over a week to read Sharpe's Enemy (Bernard Cornwell, 1984). Fortunately it's the right kind of book for that--15 books into the series, I'm familiar enough with the story structure not to get lost when I went a few days without reading, though I did kinda lose track of which secondary character was which.

I'm not sure what I think of this entry in the series. I knew from watching the movie version that two major secondary characters would die. I don't want to offer spoilers, but suffice it to say one is a character I never would've killed if these were my books (heck, if I was writing them, the character in question might well be the protagonist instead of Sharpe), while the other is one I would've killed a dozen books ago if I'd created him at all, though I think I'm alone among Cornwell fans in feeling that way. So my relief in getting rid of the Villain Everyone But Me Loves to Hate is tempered by my mourning for the Bestest Most Kick-Ass Character EVER.

I can't believe I'm over halfway through the series, though. I'm starting to feel the same "but what am I supposed to read NEXT?" gloom I felt after hitting the halfway point of the Aubrey/Maturin series a few years ago. At least Cornwell is alive and writing more Sharpes (though I wish he'd write more of the Starbuck Chronicles--he really left that series hanging and I'm dying to know what happens to Nate between Antietam and Appomatox).