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The Death of Achilles is the Fandorin book where Akunin gets bored of writing in only one register and splits the novel in half. The first part is a Moscow political mystery, with Fandorin returning from Japan to investigate the apparent suicide of a famous Russian general nicknamed Achilles. The second part jumps back in time to follow the assassin, and the structural switch is the kind of thing that should not work.
It works because the assassin, Akhimas, is a genuinely interesting character on his own terms. Akunin spends a hundred pages building his backstory and his philosophy, and the result is a villain you understand without forgiving. The two halves of the novel meet again in the closing chapters, and the resolution feels both inevitable and surprising.
Four stars. Not the most polished Fandorin (the first half is stronger than the second) but a structurally bold entry in a series that has been quietly experimental from the start.
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