The king's gold

Arturo Perez-Reverte has enthralled readers and criticsaround the globe with his Captain Alatriste series. Having sold four and a half million copies to date inthe Spanish-speaking world, the series has made Perez-Revertea literary superstar and his fictional seventeenth-century mercenarya national icon. The King’s Gold picks up in Seville, 1626. After serving withhonor at the bloody siege of Breda, Captain Alatriste and hisprotege, Inigo Balboa, have returned: battle-weary, short ofcash, and with few prospects for honest work. But the Spanishempire is as dangerous as ever, and it’s not long before Alatristereceives an intriguing offer of short-term employment. He andInigo must recruit a dozen swordsmen and mercenaries for arisky job involving a dazzling amount of contraband gold anda heavily guarded Spanish galleon returning from the WestIndies. The offer comes from the king himself, for at stake isnothing less than the Spanish Crown, and its dominion over thewealth of the Americas. The seedy taverns, the teeming prisons of Seville, the sanddunes of Guadalquivir find Alatriste, Inigo, and their motleyband of cutthroats embarking on a new adventure, one thatbrings them surprising new alliances and perilous encounterswith old enemies.