Yesterday, I got home by 9:30PM. It marked the end of very long week. In the past week, Monday to Thursday, the days were long and emergencies cropped up every which way, and burning bushes needed fire fighting. So, really at 9:30PM last night, I should have been dog tired, and should have gotten into bed and stayed there at least for next 8 hours. But, alas! at my door step was a movie from Netflix.... and I made the mistake of opening it!
The movie: Archangel.
The actor: Daniel Craig!
I scrambled some eggs with some asparagus for dinner and stared at the Netflix white sleeve at the dinner table. All the while I was eating, I debated whether I was so tired that I should sleep, or I was so tired, that another 2 hours & some odd minutes is not going to make me more tired. I asked kitties for advice, they responded with Meow and Purr.... heavens knows what that means. I voted at the end of dinner to get some sleep. As within next 24 hours, I will be zooming off to Nashville, TN (for work) for the next five days and the more work, when I get back. So, next relaxing day will be next Saturday!
As I walked upstairs to the bedroom... each step was successively harder. I thought I was tired, and resolved to get to sleep. Finally half way up, I stopped, turned, walked down, put the DVD in and turned on the TV and decided to watch half the movie and then watch the other half in the flight to Nashville. I settled happily on the couch with comfy pillows, with a nice throw at my feet, and confused kitties (I am not a night person, so it throws off my kitties, when I do something weird....like keep awake reading or watching movies) to watch the movie.
Ten minutes into the movie, I found myself sitting up straight up, bent forward and completely engrossed by movie. Forget seeing just half of the movie, I would have been devastated, if I could not see the whole movie. I watched the whole movie and finally around 12:30 the wee hours of Friday finally got to bed, but this time I was not tired!
Archangel is a gripping thriller novel written by Robert Harris adapted into a drama series by BBC. I think the editorial review on Amazon captures it beautifully:
"Fluke Kelso [played by Daniel Craig] is a middle-aged scholar of Soviet Communism with a special interest in the dark secrets of Joseph Stalin. For years, rumors have circulated about a notebook that the aging dictator kept in his final years. In a chance encounter in Moscow, Kelso meets Papu Rapava, a former NKVD guard who claims that he was at Stalin's deathbed and says that he assisted Politburo member Beria in hiding the black oilskin notebook just as Stalin was passing. Before Kelso can get more details, Rapava disappears, but the scholar is energized by the evidence Rapava has provided. As Kelso begins to pursue his historical prize, however, his investigation ensnares him in a living web of Stalinist terror and murder. It soon becomes clear that the notebook is the key to a doorway hiding many secrets, old and new"
For some absurd reason I kept thinking I have come across the name of Robert Harris somewhere before. And, further research led to the fantastic discovery that he also wrote "Enigma".
So, if you like thrillers, do see this one. It is like a great book you have to keep turning pages. A fantastic thriller and so darn beautifully filmed in Russia (I think). And to top that, it is Daniel Craig... the current favorite!