It's not so easy to retire when you are one of Spain's finest swordsmen. Much as he tries to avoid it, Diego Alatriste keeps getting pulled back into danger's unsympathetic maw.
Arturo Pérez-Reverte is one of my favorite authors, ever since I stumbled across The Fencing Master. Although he has a number of excellent stand-alone titles, Pérez-Reverte is best known for his musketeer-like Captain Alatriste series. One of Spain's (and Europe's) most popular authors, he writes in what I think of as a deliciously old world European style - hard to describe - patient and eloquent, but not at all slow. I find his writing similar to Gabriel Garcia Marquez (without the magical realism).
Diego Alatriste, an inveterate gentleman soldier and veteran of the Flemish Wars (17th century), is willing to fight for God, country and gold, but mainly for gold. In Captain Alatriste, the first book in the series, he has been hired to assassinate two British visitors. Always reluctant to shed needless blood, he spares their lives, opening a hornet's nest and infuriating the Holy Inquisition. Not good.
Pérez-Reverte's works are excellent historical fiction picks for adults and (I think) older teens. If swashbuckling isn't to your fancy, Pérez-Reverte writes some other dynamite thrillers and even a narco-saga that is surprisingly entertaining given the rough subject matter.
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