Historian “Fluke” Kelso flies to Moscow to attend a symposium on Stalin, his specialist subject, and discovers the existence of a secret notebook Stalin kept during his final years – what does it contain??
Robert Harris’ Archangel is a pretty decent novel but unfortunately it’s not up there among his best.
The Stalin flashbacks were fascinating – Harris is, as always, able to convincingly portray how historical figures might’ve talked and acted – in particular the fake first-hand account of Stalin’s dying days. Harris’ description of Boris Yeltsin’s ‘90s Russia is an interesting one with a surprisingly high number of people believing Stalin was a great ruler, even pining for the Soviet times, contrasted with the new effects of having recently adopted capitalism.
The book is perhaps a bit too long at over 400 pages. Parts of it were a little dull and the pacing, while never too slow, wasn’t as snappy as it should be for a supposed thriller – it felt like it took Kelso a while to connect all the pieces, with little happening in the meantime, and I was shocked to discover the story is meant to have taken place over three days.
And while the journey to uncover the secrets of Stalin’s notebook was good, the reveal didn’t really live up to the expectations and the ending is a tad silly too. It didn’t help that the consequences of what the secret would mean are snuffed out almost immediately afterwards either – talk about underwhelming!
The action sequences were compelling though as were most of the characters, even if in summary they might come off as somewhat clichéd: the hard-bitten ex-KGB, the roguish professor, the laconic and tenacious American reporter, the femme fatale.
Archangel was similar to Harris’ Pompeii: a decent novel that nevertheless hints at his better books. It’s not the most exciting page-turner Robert Harris has written but it’s thankfully not one of his snoozers (An Officer and a Spy, Munich) either.
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