Product Description When historian Fluke Kelso learns of the existence of a secret notebook belonging to Josef Stalin he is determined to track it down, whatever the consequences. From the violent political intrigue and decadence of modern Moscow he heads north - to the vast forests surrounding the White Sea port of Archangel, and a terrifying encounter with Russia's unburied past. Review "The best thriller for years" (Sunday Telegraph)"His best yet: a fast paced thriller, pulsing with suspense, that surpasses even the expertly handled tensions and twists ofFatherland" (Sunday Times)"Robert Harris confirms his position as Britain's pre-eminent literary thriller writer withArchangel" (The Times)"A really gripping narrative, full of suspense and unexpected turns, which will keep you hooked until the climax on its final page... I have never read a thriller based in Russia which has such an authentic feel" (Evening Standard)"Archangel is Harris's strongest book yet, confirming him as the leading current exponent of the intelligent literary thriller" (The Times) Book Description A number one bestseller from the award-winning master of the literary and historical thriller genre: Robert Harris. A gripping, thrilling explosion into Russia?s mysterious history... From the Inside Flap Present-day Russia is the setting for this stunning new novel from Robert Harris, author of the bestsellersFatherland andEnigma.        Archangel tells the story of four days in the life of Fluke Kelso, a dissipated, middle-aged former Oxford historian, who is in Moscow to attend a conference on the newly opened Soviet archives.        One night, Kelso is visited in his hotel room by an old NKVD officer, a former bodyguard of the secret police chief Lavrenty Beria. The old man claims to have been at Stalin's dacha on the night Stalin had his fatal stroke, and to have helped Beria steal the dictator's private papers, among them a notebook.        Kelso decides to use his last morning in Moscow to check out the old man's story. But what starts as an idle inquiry in the Lenin Library soon turns into a murderous chase across nighttime Moscow and up to northern Russia--to the vast forests near the White Sea port of Archangel, where the final secret of Josef Stalin has been hidden for almost half a century.        Archangel combines the imaginative sweep and dark suspense of Fatherland with the meticulous historical detail of Enigma. The result is Robert Harris's most compelling novel yet. From the Back Cover Praise forENIGMA"Elegant, atmospheric . . . a tense and thoughtful thriller."--San Francisco Chronicle"Literate and savvy . . . It's always a pleasure to encounter a historical thriller this subtle and detailed. . . . [] brims with wartime intrigue and paranoia."--The Washington Post Book WorldFATHERLAND"A stunning debut." --Boston Globe"An elegant thriller, a thoughtful, frightening story of complicity."--San Francisco Chronicle "An absorbing, expertly written novel."--The New York Times About the Author Robert Harris is the author of ten bestselling novels: the Cicero Trilogy -Imperium, Lustrum andDictator - Fatherland,Enigma,Archangel,Pompeii,The Ghost,The Fear Index, and An Officer and a Spy, which won four prizes including the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. Several of his books have been filmed, most recentlyThe Ghost, which was directed by Roman Polanski. His work has been translated into thirty-seven languages and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in West Berkshire with his wife, Gill Hornby. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. To choose one's victims, to prepare one's plans minutely, to slake an implacable vengeance, and then to go to bed . . . there is nothing sweeter in the world.--J. V. Stalin, in conversation with Kamenev and DzerzhinskyOlga Komarova of the Russi