A Sparrow Falls is the third book in Wilbur Smith's thirteen-book series referred to as the Courtney novels. The historical fiction series details the lives of members of the Courtney family starting in the 1860s and continuing until 1925 as they face such things as the Boer War and World War I.

A Sparrow Falls features Sean Courtney and events that take place at the time of World War I.  The book opens with the character Mark Anders, a sniper sent to France in pursuit of Germans. However, Mark is shot, wounded, and sent back home to England. Once home, he finds his grandfather has died. Investigation into his grandfather's death uncovers he has been murdered, and now the murderer is after Mark as well. Mark learns that the motive was Dirk Courtney's desire to steal land from Mark's grandfather, land designated to become a national park, upon which he could build a dam that would allow for more farmland to be established and increase Dirk's profits.

Mark leaves the area and soon runs into Sean Courtney, who was his general in France. Sean offers Mark a job as warden of the recently approved national park on what was his grandfather's land. However, Dirk has not given up trying to take the land for his own purposes. Together, Mark and Sean go head to head with Dirk in a political battle and succeed in winning the land for the national park.