Who Achilles Vassilikos is
Achilles Vassilikos is the Albanian-born police lieutenant who investigates Lady Margaret Chalfont’s death in Corfu. He belongs to Pünd’s Last Case, the novel Eliot Crace is writing. His initial reserve makes him a challenging colleague for a visiting detective accustomed to explaining events in his own patient way.
Role in Marble Hall Murders
Vassilikos brings local authority to the investigation. He and Pünd question the household, examine the poison purchase and test whether an apparent travel timetable is possible. Their partnership develops as each learns more about the other. A conversation about wartime experience complicates Vassilikos’s first assumptions about the German detective and allows a warmer professional relationship to emerge.
Key relationships
Atticus Pünd is his investigative partner. Lady Margaret Chalfont is the first victim; Elmer Waysmith and Robert Waysmith are central to the inquiry. His contemporary counterpart is Frederick Turner, who manages Marble Hall.
Played by Zubin Varla
Zubin Varla plays Achilles Vassilikos. Varla’s two performances connect the person who controls access to a museum with the person who controls an official inquiry. Both can help an investigator, but they hold very different kinds of power.
Their story and fate — spoilers
The case eventually exposes Robert’s manipulation of evidence against Elmer and his responsibility for the killings. Vassilikos’s authority matters when Pünd confronts the family. Before that conclusion, Eliot’s death leaves the fictional investigators stranded at the end of an unfinished manuscript, a visual reminder that their work depends on somebody completing the story in which they exist.
Books and television — book spoilers
The television adaptation moves the inner mystery from southern France to Corfu, giving the police role a Greek island context. Varla also plays Frederick, whose position in Susan’s case is entirely different. This is one of the clearest examples of the series using a shared face to encourage comparison without promising equivalent motives, innocence or guilt. The fictional policeman is not an authoritative portrait of his contemporary model.
Read or listen to the book
Marble Hall Murders (2025)
Anthony Horowitz’s novel behind the third television mystery.
Waterstones · print Audible · audiobookPaid links may earn commission, at no extra cost.
Zubin Varla plays both Achilles Vassilikos and Frederick Turner, connecting the two story worlds.