Aahana Swrup
‘Angela’ is a Spanish thriller show that revolves around the story of a woman who begins doubting her own reality after her abusive relationship with her husband leads to intense paranoia in her life. After years of quietly coping with Gonzalo’s unforgivable indiscretions, a strange man shows up in Angela’s life with wild claims. The man, Eduardo Silva, claims to be a hitman hired by her husband to kill her. Having changed his mind, he teams up with the woman to help her and her two daughters escape the dangerous situation. However, things take a menacing turn when the authorities find the family in an intense confrontation, only to learn that the man Angela has been seeing these past few days is not real. Instead, he seems to be a figment of her imagination, conjured on the basis of a thrilling crime novel, Coartada Perfecta, written by an author named Eduardo Silva. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Coartada Perfecta and Eduardo Silva are Fictional Elements With Crucial Narrative Roles
Coartada Perfecta and its author, Eduardo Silva, are foundational storytelling components in ‘Angela.’ Nonetheless, neither of these elements has a direct basis in reality. Instead, they were created specifically in service of the series and its overarching narrative. Yet, despite their fictionality, viewers may be able to find near-identical parallels to the book and the author outside of the story. As a crime novel, Coartada Perfecta (translated to Perfect Alibi) offers a captivating title that effectively encompasses the nature of the book. Therefore, it’s no surprise that similar or even just the same title has been employed off-screen for actual real-life novels. Most famously, the fourth installment in Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot series, ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,’ is translated into Spanish by translator Santiago Carroggio under the title ‘Coartada Perfecta.’
Alternatively, Phillip Margolin’s 2019 novel ‘The Perfect Alibi’ also sports a similar title to the on-screen novel. Nonetheless, neither of these novels shares a notable similarity with Silva’s Coartada Perfecta in terms of plot. Christie’s novel revolves around the peculiar deaths of a widow and her lover, while Margolin’s work deals with the story of a young woman who accuses a local college athlete of rape. Comparatively, in the show, Coartada Perfecta is described as a novel about a woman who meets and falls in love with a man who claims to be an assassin hired at the behest of her own husband. Although this genre of hitman/assassin romances remains a popular genre of romance novels, this exact plot with its accompanying title seems to be unique to the show’s plot.
Similarly, Eduardo Silva, the author, also remains confined within the fictional premises of the series. Interestingly enough, Ed Silva Jr. offers a likely coincidental parallel to the author in real life. Alongside sharing a similar name to the on-screen author, the real-life author also came out with the book ‘The Imperfect Plan’ in 2012. Even though the plot between the latter and Coartada Perfecta remains disharmonious, the similarities in their titles are evident. These instances of similar titles in crime fiction novels add a realistic context to the on-screen novel, allowing the latter to feel natural and grounded in the show’s setting. Nonetheless, given the prominent role that they play in the story, as a tool Gonzalo uses to accuse his wife of having a psychotic breakdown, both the novel and its author remain fictitious additions.
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