New Releases by Bernard Cornwell

Synopsis coming soon.......

In the 14th century, dark days fell on the Church as two popes, one in Rome and the other in Avignon, each supported by different political empires, struggled for supremacy. Hearing of a secret which may bring them victory, one side hired a mercenary to retrieve this priceless information. Thomas of Hookton is an English archer. When his village is sacked by raiders, he escapes and becomes an archer in the army of King Edward III. The King and his son are going to France with a great force of knights and men-at-arms, led by great lords. But it is the archers, the common men, who will decide the success or failure of the invasion.

After breaking with King Alfred of Wessex and joining the Danes and the Vikings in hopes of reclaiming Bebbanburg, warlord Uhtred switches sides again after Alfred''s daughter pleads with him to take command of the Mercian army and protect Britain from being conquered. By the author of the best-selling Agincourt. 200,000 first printing.

The year is 885, and England is at peace, divided between the Danish kingdom to the north and the Saxon kingdom of Wessex in the south. Uhtred, the dispossessed son of a Northumbrian lord—warrior by instinct, Viking by nature—has finally settled down. He has land, a wife and two children, and a duty given to him by King Alfred to hold the frontier on the Thames. But then trouble stirs: a dead man has risen, and new Vikings have arrived to occupy the decayed Roman city of London. Their dream is to conquer Wessex, and to do it they need Uhtred''s help. Alfred has other ideas. He wants Uhtred to expel the Viking raiders from London. Uhtred must weigh his oath to the king against the dangerous turning tide of shifting allegiances and deadly power struggles. It is Uhtred—half Saxon, half Dane—whose uncertain loyalties must now decide England''s future.

An extraordinary and dramatic depiction of the legendary battle of Agincourt from the number one historical novelist.

Cornwells third and most dramatic volume in the Saxon Chronicles is the story of the creation of modern England, as the English and the Danes become one people by sharing language and fighting side by side.

From New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell comes a saga of fidelity and betrayal that brings to center stage King Alfred the Great, one of the most crucial figures in English history. It is King Alfred and his heirs who in the ninth and tenth centuries fought to secure the survival of England by battling the ferocious Viking invaders. Bernard Cornwell''s epic novel opens in A.D. 866. Uhtred, the son of a nobleman, is captured in the same battle that leaves his father dead. His captor is the Earl Ragnar, a Danish chieftain, who raises the boy as his own, teaching him the Viking ways of war. Uhtred grapples with divided loyalties, torn between Ragnar, the warrior he loves like a father, and Alfred, whose piety and introspection leave him cold. It takes a terrible slaughter and the unexpected joys of marriage for Uhtred to discover his true allegiance -- and to rise to his greatest challenge.

In this exciting sequel to "The Archer''s Tale" and "Vagabond," the "New York Times" bestselling author concludes his tale of an epic quest for vengeance and the greatest prize in all history: the Holy Grail.

To stem the Napoleonic tide, Sharpe must capture a fortress—where his wife and infant daughter are trapped—while protecting himself from a fellow officer determined to destroy him. In an era dominated by war and ambition, the relentless Richard Sharpe and his comrades find themselves on a mission to thwart Napoleon''s dream of empire. As they navigate treacherous landscapes and face the perils of battle, Sharpe''s determination is matched only by his relentless adversary.

The greatest threat to Wellington''s Salamanca Campaign is not Napoleon''s Army but France''s deadliest assassin. He''s already failed to kill Captain Richard Sharpe once. Now, he''s getting a second chance.

The first book in Bernard Cornwell''s epic Sharpe series, which completely transports the reader to an unforgettable time and place in history. At Talavera in July of 1809, Captain Richard Sharpe, bold, professional, and ruthless, prepares to lead his men against the armies of Napoleon into what will be the bloodiest battle of the war. Sharpe has earned his captaincy, but there are others, such as the foppish Lieutenant Gibbons and his uncle, Colonel Henry Simmerson, who have bought their commissions despite their incompetence. After their cowardly loss of the regiment''s colors, their resentment toward the upstart Sharpe turns to treachery, and Sharpe must battle his way through sword fights and bloody warfare to redeem the honor of his regiment by capturing the most valued prize in the French Army—a golden Imperial Eagle, the standard touched by the hand of Napoleon himself.

This spellbinding historical drama, set in 1820s London, surrounds a former solider of the Napoleonic Wars who is drawn to Newgate Prison, where he attempts to rescue an innocent man condemned to the gallows. First in a new series.

Bestselling historical novelist Bernard Cornwell returns to the battlefields of the Iberian Peninsula with Sharpe''s Havoc, where the lieutenant and his men bravely fight the French invasion into Portugal. It is 1809, a few years after Lieutenant Richard Sharpe''s heroic exploits on the battlefields of India and at Trafalgar, and Sharpe finds himself fighting the savage armies of Napoleon Bonaparte as they try to bring the whole of the Iberian Peninsula under their control. Napoleon is advancing fast in northern Portugal, and no one knows whether the small contingent of British troops stationed in Lisbon will stay to fight or sail back to England. Sharpe, however, does not have a choice: He and his squad of riflemen are on the lookout for the missing daughter of an English wine shipper, when the French onslaught begins and the city of Oporto becomes a setting for carnage and disaster. Stranded behind enemy lines, Sharpe returns to his mission to find Kate Savage. Sharpe''s position on enemy grounds is precarious, and his search is further complicated by a mysterious and threatening Englishman, Colonel Christopher, who has his own ideas on how the French can be driven from Portugal. Christopher''s scheme is dangerous, and Sharpe and his Riflemen are the only obstacles standing in his way. Suddenly, a newly arrived British commander in Lisbon, Sir Arthur Wellesley, unknowingly comes to Sharpe''s rescue. Just when Sharpe and his men seem doomed, Sir Arthur mounts his own counterattack, an operation of breathtaking daring that will send Marshal Soult''s army reeling back into the northern mountains. Sharpe''s Havoc is a classic Sharpe story, based on real history, and a return to Portugal in the company of Sergeant Patrick Harper, Captain Hogan, and Sharpe''s beloved Green-jackets, who can turn a battle as fast as Cornwell''s readers can turn a page.

June 1815: The Duke of Wellington, the Prince of Orange, and Napoleon will meet on the battlefield--and decide the fate of Europe With the emperor Napoleon at its head, an enormous French army is marching toward Brussels. The British and their allies are also converging on Brussels--in preparation for a grand society ball. It is up to Richard Sharpe to convince the Prince of Orange, the inexperienced commander of Wellington''s Dutch troops, to act before it is too late. But Sharpe''s warning cannot stop the tide of battle, and the British suffer heavy losses on the road to Waterloo. Wellington has few reserves of men and ammunition; the Prussian army has not arrived; and the French advance wields tremendous firepower and determination. Victory seems impossible.

A band of renegades led by Sharpe''s vicious enemy, Obadiah Hakeswill, holds a group of British and French women hostage on a strategic mountain pass. Outnumbered and attacked from two sides, Sharpe must hold his ground or die in the attempt.

An unfinished duel, a midnight murder, and the treachery of a beautiful prostitute lead to the imprisonment of Sharpe. Caught in a web of political intrigue for which his military experience has left him fatally unprepared, Sharpe becomes a fugitive--a man hunted by both ally and enemy alike.

This spellbinding historical drama, set in 1820s London, surrounds a former solider of the Napoleonic Wars who is drawn to Newgate Prison, where he attempts to rescue an innocent man condemned to the gallows. First in a new series.

Gift Local 12-18-2006 $15.95.

"It was a bloody awful shot," Sharpe said. "My mother could lay a gun better than that." "I didn''t think you had a mother," Private Garrard said. "Everyone''s got a mother, Tom." "Not Sergeant Hakeswill," Garrard said, then spat a mix of dust and spittle. . . . "Hakeswill was spawned of the devil." Richard Sharpe—Soldier, hero, rogue—the man you always want on your side. Born in poverty, he joined the army to escape jail and climbed the ranks by sheer brutal courage. He knows no other family than the regiment of the 95th Rifles, whose green jacket he proudly wears.

With The Winter King, the first volume of his magnificent Warlord Chronicles, Bernard Cornwell turns to the story he was born to write: the mythic saga of King Arthur. Now a major television show. The tale begins in Dark Age Britain, a land where Arthur has been banished and Merlin has disappeared, where a child-king sits unprotected on the throne, where religion vies with magic for the souls of the people. It is to this desperate land that Arthur returns, a man at once utterly human and truly heroic: a man of honor, loyalty, and amazing valor; a man who loves Guinevere more passionately than he should; a man whose life is at once tragic and triumphant. As Arthur fights to keep a flicker of civilization alive in a barbaric world, Bernard Cornwell makes a familiar tale into a legend all over again.

This rousing and splendid Civil War series continues with the story of Nate Starblick as he serves under General Robert E. Lee himself, culminating in the famous, bloody battle of Antietam.

Leading an Irish battalion from the king of Spain''s household guard into the bitter Peninsular War of 1811, Richard Sharpe is ambushed by an elite French unit commanded by his arch enemy and is forced to salvage a ruined reputation. Reprint.

John Rossendale, heir to an impoverished earldom, is content to wander the oceans in a 38-foot cutter called Sunflower. But even on the peaceful seas, mystery seems to find him and lure him into dangerous waters--as he is trapped in a cat-and-mouse game with a shadowy figure determined to acquire a lost Rossendale treasure.

Nick Sandman''s spine was shattered by a bullet in the Falklands. He has no money and no prospects, only a dream of sailing far away from his troubles on his boat, Sycorax. But Sycorax is as crippled as he is, and to make her seaworthy again, Nick must strike a devil''s bargain with egomaniacal TV star Tony Bannister. Signing on to the crew of Bannister''s powerful ocean racer, Wildtrack, Nick is expected to help sail her to victory. But the despised celebrity has made some powerful enemies who will stop at nothing for revenge. . . .