Sharpe’s Prey recap

After Lady Grace dies giving birth and their newborn dies soon afterward, Lieutenant Richard Sharpe is stranded in England with money but little purpose. British intelligence recruits him to accompany John Lavisser to Copenhagen, where merchant Ole Skovgaard runs a threatened spy network. Lavisser tries to remove Sharpe and is revealed as a traitor serving French interests. With help from Captain Joel Chase, Sharpe reaches Denmark, tries to save the Skovgaard network, and becomes close to Ole's daughter Astrid. Britain, fearing Napoleon will seize Denmark's navy, lands an army on Zealand and bombards Copenhagen until the fleet is surrendered. Sharpe defeats Lavisser, but the attack makes a future with Astrid impossible. She is killed after the operation in circumstances whose full cause Sharpe does not learn. The fleet is taken to Britain, and he returns to service with the rifles, still grieving but no longer intent on fleeing his commission.

Previously: Richard Sharpe rose from private to officer during the British campaigns in India, surviving Obadiah Hakeswill's persecution, helping take Seringapatam and Gawilghur, and saving Arthur Wellesley's life at Assaye. On the voyage home he fell in love with Lady Grace Hale. Her husband died during the British victory at Trafalgar, allowing Sharpe and Grace to reach England together while concealing their relationship behind the Hale name. Before this book opens, Grace died giving birth, and the baby died as well. Sharpe begins the story bereaved, isolated, and unable to find a place in England that matches the future he expected with her.

In 1807 Sharpe is a lieutenant attached to the newly formed rifle regiment in England, but Grace's death has left him angry and indifferent to advancement. He considers leaving the army and beginning elsewhere. Lord Pumphrey and Sir David Baird instead draw him into a secret mission. Britain fears that Napoleon will force neutral Denmark to surrender its valuable fleet. John Lavisser, an officer with Danish connections, is to carry funds and instructions to Ole Skovgaard, a Copenhagen merchant who gathers intelligence for Britain. Sharpe is assigned as the experienced soldier who can help Lavisser reach the contact. The work offers escape from England, though Sharpe is wary of the secrecy surrounding it and of Lavisser's confidence that social standing will settle every difficulty.

The voyage exposes the mission as a trap. Lavisser and Barker turn on Sharpe, intending to ensure that he cannot reach Copenhagen or report what he has learned. Sharpe survives their attempt and is separated from the official route into Denmark. Captain Joel Chase, his ally from Trafalgar, is operating with British naval forces and helps restore Sharpe to the larger contest. Sharpe now knows the mission has been compromised from within: the money, Skovgaard's identity, and Britain's intentions are all at risk. Rather than return safely to England, he continues toward Copenhagen to warn the merchant and uncover whom Lavisser serves.

Sharpe reaches Copenhagen and finds Ole Skovgaard's household under pressure. Ole's work for Britain has made him a target, while his daughter Astrid must judge whether Sharpe is another dangerous agent bringing trouble to their door. Lavisser uses his Danish connections and polished public identity to move more freely than Sharpe, concealing betrayal behind the appearance of patriotic service. Sharpe and Astrid become close as they try to protect Ole and salvage the intelligence network. Around them Denmark prepares to defend its neutrality, refusing Britain's demand that its fleet be placed beyond Napoleon's reach. The private struggle over Skovgaard is being overtaken by the prospect of an open British attack.

A British expedition lands on Zealand and closes around Copenhagen. Wellesley and other commanders defeat Danish forces outside the capital while the navy seals the approaches. Sharpe passes between the secret conflict in the city and the army outside, trying to bring Skovgaard's information to safety and expose Lavisser before the traitor can destroy the witnesses against him. Astrid sees the British not merely as allies against France but as invaders threatening civilians and her home. Sharpe's loyalty to individuals in Copenhagen increasingly conflicts with the expedition's decision to compel Denmark by force.

The British begin a sustained bombardment of Copenhagen, using artillery and rockets to break the government's refusal to surrender the fleet. Fires and casualties spread through the city. Amid the destruction Sharpe works to free the Skovgaards from the consequences of Lavisser's betrayal and closes on the officer who tried to kill him. Evidence of Lavisser's service to Britain's enemies becomes clear, but exposing him still requires survival in a city where both Danish defenders and the traitor's men regard Sharpe as prey. The military outcome is becoming inevitable even as the moral cost makes any personal victory hollow.

Copenhagen capitulates and Denmark surrenders its warships, which the British take away rather than risk their use by Napoleon. Sharpe defeats Lavisser and ends his attempt to exploit Ole Skovgaard's network. The mission succeeds strategically, but the bombardment has devastated parts of the city and transformed Astrid's view of Britain and of Sharpe's place within its army. Astrid is killed after the operation, while Sharpe is left without the full truth about responsibility for her death. Chase and the fleet survive, and Wellesley's troops withdraw after achieving their objective. Sharpe gives up the idea of escaping his military life and returns to the rifles, carrying Grace's loss with him and unaware of the full personal cost imposed by the secret affair.

The British bombardment compels Copenhagen to surrender its fleet, preventing Napoleon from gaining the Danish warships but leaving the city damaged and its people embittered. Sharpe proves that Lavisser betrayed the mission and hunts him through the fighting, ending the immediate threat to Britain's intelligence network. Ole Skovgaard's service to Britain has exacted a severe price from his family, and Sharpe's attachment to Astrid cannot overcome what the British attack has done to her country. Astrid is killed after the operation, while the full responsibility for her death remains concealed from Sharpe. Captain Chase survives the naval operation, and Wellesley's expedition completes its limited military purpose. Sharpe leaves Denmark still carrying the grief of Grace and their child, but he has chosen continued service over abandoning the army. His future lies with the riflemen, not with the private escape he had imagined in England.