Captain Alatriste Books In Order

Captain Alatriste

The first in a magnificent series of historical novels from the acclaimed, bestselling author of The Club Dumas and The Queen of the South. Captain Alatriste is the story of a fictional seventeenth century Spanish soldier who, after being wounded in battle during the Thirty Years’ War, is forced to retire from the army. Now he lives the comparatively tame though hardly quiet life of a swordsman for hire in Madrid. Approached with an offer of work, Alatriste is told to go with another hired blade to an unfamiliar part of the city at midnight and wait. They are received by men who explain that they want Alatriste and his companion to ambush two travelers the following evening, stage a robbery, and give the men a fright. ‘No blood,’ they are told. But then a third figure enters the room. He says the job requires some clarification: he increases the pay, and tells them that, instead, they must murder the two travelers. Then he reveals his identity: Emilio Bocanegra. It is a name synonymous with the Spanish Inquisition, the bloodiest name in Europe. This is a man whose requests cannot be denied. But the following night, with the attack imminent, it becomes clear to Alatriste that these aren’t ordinary travelers. And what happens next is only the first in a series of riveting twists and turns, with implications that will reverberate throughout the courts of Europe. For anyone who loves the work of Arturo Pirez Reverte and those who have not yet discovered the delights of this extraordinary writer Captain Alatriste is one of the most stylish, singular pleasures to come along in years.

Purity of Blood

Arturo Perez Reverte is one of the most beloved writers in the world. His bestselling novels, including The Club Dumas and The Queen of the South, have been published in fifty countries and translated into twenty eight languages. Now, with The Adventures of Captain Alatriste, he delivers a magnificent series, already a million copy bestseller in Spain, that chronicles the heroic adventures of a seventeenth century swordsman.

In Purity of Blood, the second novel in the series, the courageous Alatriste is considering rejoining his old regiment to fight in Breda but his blade leads him to another adventure. A desperate father hires him to rescue his daughter from a convent where a powerful priest is said to be using the girl as his personal concubine. The father has been prevented from legal recourse because the priest has threatened to reveal that the man’s family is ‘not of pure blood’ is, in fact, of Jewish descent which will all but destroy the family name. Alatriste agrees to help, and several nights later, under the cloak of darkness, a rescue attempt is made.

But soon Alatriste discovers that he has become part of a religious and political conspiracy that leads all the way to the highest levels of the Inquisition. When a date is set to burn the man’s daughter at the stake, Captain Alatriste springs into action sword first setting off a series of twists and turns that will keep readers riveted to the page.

Translation by Margaret Sayers Peden

The Sun Over Breda

Arturo P rez Reverte has enthralled readers and critics around the globe with his Captain Alatriste series. Having sold four and a half million copies to date in the Spanish speaking world, the series has made P rez Reverte a literary superstar and his fictional seventeenth century mercenary a national icon. And the appeal of P rez Reverte’s adventurer and his exploits continues to grow, as evidenced by the extraordinary reception for the first two translated volumes in the series Captain Alatriste and Purity of Blood.

And now, in The Sun Over Breda, P rez Reverte continues his thrilling chronicle of the swordsman for hire, as Captain Alatriste takes up his blade and rejoins his elite Cartagena regiment as they take part in the battles and siege of Breda. Fifteen year old igo Balboa enlists to serve as his master’s aide, and narrates their further adventures of swordplay and skirmishes, of mutiny and wartime honor. And, back in Spain, Alatriste’s nemesis Luis de Alqu zar grows more powerful, as igo’s mysterious friend Ang lica hints at some plans upon his return

The King’s Gold

From acclaimed and bestselling author Arturo P rez Reverte comes the fourth adventure of Captain Alatriste, the brooding, charismatic hero of his wildly successful Spanish swashbuckling novels The New York Times. Arturo P rez Reverte has enthralled readers and critics around the globe with his Captain Alatriste series. Having sold four and a half million copies to date in the Spanish speaking world, the series has made P rez Reverte a literary superstar and his fictional seventeenth century mercenary a national icon. The King’s Gold picks up in Seville, 1626. After serving with honor at the bloody siege of Breda, Captain Alatriste and his prot g , Inigo Balboa, have returned: battle weary, short of cash, and with few prospects for honest work. But the Spanish empire is as dangerous as ever, and it s not long before Alatriste receives an intriguing offer of short term employment. He and Inigo must recruit a dozen swordsmen and mercenaries for a risky job involving a dazzling amount of contraband gold and a heavily guarded Spanish galleon returning from the West Indies. The offer comes from the king himself, for at stake is nothing less than the Spanish Crown, and its dominion over the wealth of the Americas. The seedy taverns, the teeming prisons of Seville, the sand dunes of Guadalquivir find Alatriste, Inigo, and their motley band of cutthroats embarking on a new adventure, one that brings them surprising new alliances and perilous encounters with old enemies.

The Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet

From the acclaimed and bestselling author comes the fifth adventure of Captain Alatriste, ‘the brooding, charismatic hero of his wildly successful Spanish swashbuckling novels’ The New York Times. In the cosmopolitan world of seventeenth century Madrid, with its posh theaters and gleaming palaces, Captain Alatriste and his prot g , igo, are fish out of water. But the king and court are keeping Alatriste on retainer he has proved useful in the past. As a veteran with no other source of income, Alatriste chooses to remain, even as his ’employment’ brings him uncomfortably close to old enemies. igo, now a young man and veteran of the Hundred Years War, chooses to remain with his master and press his ill fated romance with the beautiful but sinister Ang lica de Alqu zar. Alatriste, for his part, begins an affair with the famous and famously beautiful actress Mar a de Castro, and discovers that the competition for her favors may be much more dangerous than he’d bargained for, especially when Alatriste and igo become unwilling participants in a court conspiracy that could lead them both to the gallows.

Pirates of the Levant

This was a time when Spain was revered, feared, and hated in the easterly seas; when the devil had no color, no name, and no flag; and when the only thing needed to summon hell on earth or sea was a Spaniard and his sword. Accompanied by his faithful foster son, igo, Captain Alatriste accepts a job as a mercenary aboard a Spanish galleon. The ship sets sail from Naples on a journey that will take them to some of the most remote and wretched outposts of the empire: Morocco, Algeria, and finally to Malta for a stunning and bloody battle on the high seas that will challenge even the battle hardened Alatriste’s resolve. Now seventeen, igo is almost ready to leave Alatriste, his foster father and fellow soldier. But will age and experience bring wisdom, or is he likely to repeat many of his mentor’s mistakes?