The Heydrich Legacy by David O'Donnell review: 'moments of genuine tension'
Although it has its faults, this Second World War-set thriller is concise and fast paced and comes to a dramatic conclusion, writes Rachel Mackie
In 1942, David O’Donnell’s fictional policeman Chief Inspector Rolf Schneider was ordered by Adolf Hitler to investigate the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. The discovery of secret files during this inquiry lead him to flee the country with Anna, the woman he loves, and start a new life in Switzerland, haunted by their past.
This book begins a year later. Himmler, hell-bent on revenge and determined to reclaim the secret files, sends a Nazi civil servant and a ruthless agent to seek out Schneider and his wife.
Stalin is also keen to get his hands on the papers to use them for some handy blackmail, and has sent a chess grandmaster who is also a spy to retrieve them. With the players in place, The Heydrich Legacy then takes us on a winding journey towards a dramatic climax in a Swiss farmhouse.
This novel is the second in a series but I read it as a standalone and it does work without having read the first, although I imagine it would be much improved with the right context in place.
The main problem with this book, however, is that it doesn’t quite have the weight needed to host Himmler, Hitler and Stalin as active characters. Their appearances are jarring and, with very little nuance to their characters, not as interesting as they should be.
We never feel as if we are fully immersed in the world of the novel, and as a result some of the more interesting ideas don’t pack the same punch that they might have done.
We follow several characters who are supposed to have above average powers of analysis, but some of them make choices that frankly make it seem that they weren’t blessed with any sense of self preservation. Mostly they attempt to use logic to predict the actions of their enemy counterparts, but that’s not much good when nobody appears to act in a logical way, or even a way in keeping with their character.
We don’t really spend enough time with any one character to truly understand them as a person, either, which makes it harder to become emotionally invested in the book. However, for those who have read the first in the series, some lingering feeling for Rolf and Anna might still survive. That said, for a book with so many moving parts, we never get lost or lose track of the story. It is concise and fast paced and the climax has moments of genuine tension.
The Heydrich Legacy by David O'Donnell, Polygon, £9.99
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