Dougherty is adept at dissecting Lina Heydrich’s attempts to exonerate her husband from the label of 'the Hangman,' and gets to the essence of what it was like to enjoy the privileges of living so close to the center of Nazi power. Dougherty periodically moves beyond the Heydriches’ story to go into great detail on some events, such as Kristallnacht; here she risks losing her focus. She is, however, extremely dexterous in demonstrating Reinhard Heydrich’s role in policy making and implementation in Nazi Germany. Dougherty also deconstructs the internal dynamics of the Nazi party, in which Heydrich excelled. Of particular interest in this biography is its discussion of the postwar experiences of Lina Heydrich and her children, and what they reveal about the families of high-ranking Nazi officials.

... an exhaustive and dark expedition into the diabolical mind of a truly evil villain and unsettling insight on the deliberate delusion that blinded some Germans to the horrific atrocities committed by the Third Reich..

Dougherty’s particular contribution is that she has extensively interviewed the feisty and mostly unreflective widow, Lina, who generally ends her revisionist observations with a verbal shrug: 'nicht wahr?' (wasn’t it so?).

... gripping.

Dougherty vividly dissects the murderous intrigues roiling Nazi bureaucracies and the crooked path of opportunism, brutalization, and warped Nazi idealism that led Hitler’s minions to a policy of extermination. The result is a chilling, revelatory case study of the moral corruption of the Third Reich..