A summary of "The Death of Achilles" by Boris Akunin

This book is a detective novel by Boris Akunin, published in 1998. The narrative unfolds in two parallel lines, showing the events from the perspectives of the protagonist and the assassin, whose paths intersect only at the end. It is part of the "Adventures of Erast Fandorin" detective novel series, and is the fourth installment in the cycle, following "Azazel," "The Turkish Gambit," and "Leviathan."

Return to Moscow and investigation

In 1882, the young detective Erast Petrovich Fandorin arrives in Moscow after serving diplomatic service in Japan. He is accompanied by his loyal servant, Masahiro Shibata. The official begins working for the Moscow governor, Prince Vladimir Andreevich Dolgoruky. While staying at the Dussault Hotel, Erast Petrovich learns of the presence there of the renowned military leader Mikhail Dmitrievich Sobolev, known as the White General.

At the governor’s first reception, news arrives of Sobolev’s sudden death from heart failure. Fandorin notices suspicious details: the deceased’s orderly, Captain Gukmasov, was unshaven, despite always being meticulous. The governor entrusts Erast Petrovich with a secret investigation. Arriving at the general’s quarters, the detective discovers a forgery. The candles in the room were not lit, and the orderly sent the night porter for water in the early morning to bring in the body. It turns out the general died in the apartment of the singer Vanda, whom he had met the day before. The officers tried to conceal the shameful fact.

Wanting to keep the secret, the adjutants challenge Fandorin to a duel to the death. Erast Petrovich, possessing phenomenal luck, defeats and wounds Lieutenant Erdeli, unerringly drawing an unloaded pistol. Now free to act, he infiltrates Wanda’s apartment using his ninja skills. Watching from the window, Fandorin overhears the singer’s conversation with German agent Hans-Georg Knabe. It turns out the spy gave Wanda a vial of poison for the White General. Wanda denies complicity, claiming Sobolev’s death was natural.

The detective, working with the police, organizes surveillance of Knabe at the Alpine Rose restaurant. During the chase, Knabe fatally wounds Agent Klyuev. Fandorin pursues the spy to his apartment on Karetny Lane. There, he finds Knabe murdered with a butcher knife, and the apartment itself ransacked to simulate a robbery.

The Missing Million

That night, Sobolev’s former lover, Ekaterina Golovina, comes to see Fandorin. She reveals information concealed by the officers in his retinue. The general was carrying a briefcase containing approximately one million rubles, intended for a secret political operation. The detective enters the sealed hotel room and discovers a broken-in safe. Traces of evidence indicate entry through a narrow window.

In the morning, Fandorin contacts his former mentor, retired police officer Ksavery Grushin. Grushin identifies the burglar — bandit Misha Malenky — by the burglary’s signature and the size of the window. Disguised as a fence, a blind beggar, and a mute Asian, Fandorin, Masa, and Grushin head to the "Katorga" tavern in Khitrovka. The criminal regulars recognize the disguised police agents. Tavernkeeper Abdul kills Grushin with a girey and seriously wounds Masa. Fandorin manages to free himself from his bonds with a hidden blade, assembles a nuntyaku weapon from crutches, and dispatches the bandits. After interrogating the wounded Misha, he learns the identity of the man who ordered the crime: Khurtinsky, the head of the secret police department.

The detective immediately goes to Khurtinsky, but finds the official hanged in his office with a suicide note. The secretary shares an important omen: before his death, Captain Pevtsov came to his superior with a brown briefcase. Later, this light-eyed man fraudulently takes a million from Masa right in the gendarmerie building and disappears.

Fandorin suspects that a single elusive professional is behind the murders of Sobolev, Knabe, the bandits, and Khurtinsky. To lure out the criminal, the detective calls Wanda on the phone and impersonates the voice of the fake merchant Klonov. The singer reveals her address: the numbers of the "Troitskoye Podvorye" (Trinity Courtyard).

The Story of a Hitman

The second part of the narrative shifts to the past, revealing the biography of Achimas Velde. The son of a German Mennonite father and a Chechen mother, he lost his parents during a raid by the abrek Magoma. Having escaped the cruel Cossacks to the Skirov orphanage, the boy lived there disguised as a girl, Leah, and befriended an orphan named Zhenya. Soon, his smuggler uncle took his nephew and taught him to master the art of bladed weapons and firearms. The young man took cold-blooded revenge on Magoma, poisoning his accomplices with the juice of a poisonous mushroom and slitting the throat of his mother’s killer.

Achimas became a professional mercenary. He amassed a vast fortune by assassinating people on contract, always acting impeccably, relying on cold calculation and absolute fearlessness. During a robbery in Semigorsk, he broke into the iron room of the wealthy Medvedev with the help of the owner’s wife, whom he recognized as the orphan Zhenya. During the escape, Achimas allowed Evgenia to escape the guards’ fire in order to save himself. Later, he pulled off a brilliant operation in Belgium, acquitting the serial killer Pierre Fechtel with the help of the naive young lawyer Likol, whom he then burned alive.

Achimas received the order to assassinate Sobolev in St. Petersburg from a high-ranking official identified only as "Monsieur NN." The client explained the general’s plans to stage a military coup. A secret court sentenced the rebel to death. A mandatory condition was that he feign a natural death, which would compromise the leader in the eyes of the conspiratorial officers.

Achimas carried out the task perfectly. He used Wanda as bait, replacing the ordered wine with a bottle containing Amazonian fern extract. The poison causes immediate cardiac arrest when the heart rate increases. After Sobolev’s death, Achimas removed the briefcase containing the money from the safe as additional payment. The elimination of Knabe, Misha Malenkiy, and Khurtinsky were logical steps to cover their tracks.

Confrontation and denouement

In the morning, Erast Petrovich arrived at the Trinity Compound, unaware of the absence of a police cordon. The chief of police had lifted the ambush on orders from higher-ups. Achimas received a telegram from his client authorizing the elimination of the overzealous detective and prepared for the meeting.

Fandorin knocks on the door with the prearranged knock. Achimas hides behind the curtain, having prepared a decoy target on the bed. The detective falls into a trap and finds himself at the mercenary’s gunpoint. Achimas forces Fandorin to undress and discard all his secret weapons. Erast Petrovich challenges the killer to a conversation, inquiring about the method of Sobolev’s poisoning. Taking advantage of the assassin’s momentary lapse in concentration, the detective leaps out the broken window.

A shootout breaks out in the courtyard. Achimas prepares to kill Fandorin, but Masa, disguised as a street vendor, suddenly intervenes. The Japanese man knocks the mercenary down with a powerful blow. The assassin tries to escape into the room to get to his spare revolver, but Erast Petrovich manages to fire first, fatally wounding Achimas in the spine.

Before his death, the killer reveals the truth about his clients and warns the official of the danger he faces. Achimas asks for fifty thousand to be sent to Wanda, and offers to take the remaining million to Fandorin, along with prepared fake passports and a ticket for the Paris express.

Convinced of his betrayal of the state, Erast Petrovich decides to flee the country. He boards an international train at the station, in deep despair. However, in the last minutes before departure, his valet, Frol Grigoryevich Vedishchev, appears on the platform. The old man explains the true state of affairs. It turns out that Prince Dolgoruky protected Fandorin from the St. Petersburg authorities, presenting the events as the successful elimination of the dangerous con man Klonov. The charges are dropped. Erast Petrovich hands the briefcase containing the money to Vedishchev, ostensibly an anonymous donation for the completion of the frescoes in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and together with Masa, he goes to breakfast with the Governor-General.