Posted on December 16, 2009 by Nayab Naseer

Archangel is one of Robert Harris’ thriller novel set in modern day post Communist Russia.

Professor “Fluke” Kelso, a British history professor specializes in Stalin. He comes to Russia for a conference, and meets Rapava, an old man and ex-soldier who claims that he was present with Stalin on the night he died, in 1953. He leads Kelso to Stalin’s secret notebook. Other people are also interested in this notebook, and Rapava has to pay for it with his life. Kelso meets Rapava’s daughter, a prostitute.

Stalin’s notebook leads to a stunning secret that could have diabolical implications for the present. Kelso teams up with the American reporter O’Brien to a forest beyond the northern city of Archangel to unearth the secret. The Russian government, who has got wind of the plans sends special forces commandos to make sure the secrets stay buried, primarily to thwart an ex-KGB man’s attempt to restore a Communist dictatorship. All seems lost for the Russian Government and Kelso when the novel ends with an unexpected and bizarre twist.

The plot is fast paced and the characterization reasonable, but the basic success of the novel is Robert Harris’ ability to give importance to history and the oft ignored but realistic tension between a long view of an academic historian and the media.