The Holcroft Covenant: A Novel

My first book by Robert Ludlum - it won't be the last!

I am hooked on Robert Ludlum's books. I gave up romance after I turned 20, moved on to murder mysteries (Ellery Queen genre), but I never experienced an author that could keep me awake until 3:00 in the morning, not only with one of his books--but with all of them!I have read The Chancellor Manuscripts, all three of the series of the Bourne books, and just finished the Holcroft Covenant, which teases and hints at a sequel in the last few pages, and I'm crossing my fingers there is one (have to still check out his list of books).The Holcroft Covenant deals with Nazi sympathizers and a Covenant that is allegedly going to help all those victims of the Holocaust approximately 30 years after the conclusion of the war. Mr. Holcraft, the son of one of Hitler's closest officers who supposedly committed suicide in the last days of the Reich, is given a letter, written by his father before his death, directing the son to find two other Nazi offspring, go to Geneva, and recover a multi-million dollar account that is dictated to be used to 'help' those victims of war crimes committed during the war.The twist, as expected in any Ludlum novel, occurs about half-way through the book, from a direction the reader would never guess, and involves a woman (the hero always has to get his gal in Ludlum's novels--I love it!), and this right after he encounters an experience that forces him to run for his life, hide from those he loves, and cuts his communications off from any normal life that the hero would normally use if this was real life.While Ludlum's books smack of a 'formula,' I absolutely love it--you know that something unusual is going to happen to the main character, he's going to be forced to give up his normal life to go out and 'save the world,' he'll use life-long aquaintances for help throughout the book (although about 85% end up in a morgue by the end of the story), there's lots of shooting of the bad guys, a damsel in distress who will initially hate the main character, then fall in love with him, and after everybody shoots at each other and more bad and good guys die, the hero either ends up being 'savior' of the world, or he ends up physically chopped to pieces, but survives to take on the bad guys again.Don't try this plot at home--only Ludlum can add enough realistic and believable imagery to convince you of the reality of the story with his details of Europe, lovely descriptions of continental hotels, and travelogues throughout the storyline.If you haven't tried a Ludlum novel, pick one up--any one, and enjoy an espionage thriller that only a master like Ludlum can write.

This personal absolutely loved this story. So, if you are reading this review to decide whether or not you should read it, then, yes, you should absolutely read this magnificent story. It had character development, storylines within storylines, action, violence and suspense. It was riveting, cerebral, a thinking person's novel and did I say it had a storyline! Reader beware: you'll have to pay attention to Johann Tiebolt aka John Tennyson, the Tinamou, Kessler, Helden, Althene, Graff's Odessa, and what the Third Reich, the Fourth Reich, Rache terrorists, the Wolfsschanaze, sonnen kinder, verwunschte kinder, the Odessa and the Nachrichtendienst all have to do with Noel Holcroft and all that money. The story rampaged through different places all over the world (New York, a small town in France, Brazil and Germany just to name a few) with Holcroft taking centre stage for most of the story until Ludlum takes pity on the reader and finally gives us a fuller explanation of the storyline. The 515 page novel was read in only three sittings because this person could not put it down. Superb storytelling! 5 STARS.

The Nazi's in the final days of the war hatched a plan for the rebirth of the third Reich. Now only one man, Noel Holcroft, stands in their way. The son of one of the highest ranking Nazi's, raised in ignorance of who his father was, he is know the inheritor of a vast amount of money that he is to use to right the wrongs his father and his father's cohorts inflicted on the world (as if that's possible). He is betrayed on all sides, surrounded by lies and pursued by enemies on all sides as the ODESSA pursues the money he controls in order to use it to push the world into another war. The European locals are interesting, the characters are twisted and believable, but it was a little flat for me this time around. I first read this when I was a teenager and recently re-read it. It was better back in the day, but that is probably because I have been trained to like a lot more action in my spy stories. This is a bit wordy and a little bit dated but I still enjoyed it. When I was 17 I would have given this 10 stars, now it's just four.

I thoroughly enjoyed the suspense, the romance, the intelligence of the cast. I’ve read several of these books by this author. He is an excellent writer with his obvious ability to grab you and make you want to read the next paragraph. Thanks

In this novel, Ludlum takes you into a plan to bring about Germany's 4th Reich, a deadly plan to put into power throughout the world those whom Hitler's henchmen deemed as the best of the Aryan race - children, who were carefully selected and secreted out of Germany, and raised to become the leaders of the new order, backed by millions of dollars embezzled from Nazi finances and hidden away in Swiss banks to await specific circumstances that will set in motion this ultimate plan for world domination. Given discoveries that have been made through research of documents discovered after WWII, Ludlum's premise for this novel is believable. The story is masterly crafted to keep you engaged and almost breathless as Noel Holcroft discovers the truth behind his carefully constructed life. The story twists and turns as he tries to thwart a plan of which he has been unwittingly an integral part since childhood. A wonderful read.

An enjoyable read, I appreciate the vividness of the characters, and the complexity of the plot. I look forward to reading more

This title was amongst Ludlum's prime time. I watched movie first, it was almost entirely different from his original one. Once again our hero was John Wayne type (Who care), but I still wanted to follow his exaggerated story lines. Background of this title was mainly in Germany. So, when I read his other titles I could not remember the names of towns and cities which ones belonging to which titles. Anyway, if one is Ludlum's fan. one would not be diappointed!

very good

convenants are always thre to be broken but the action was electrifying

Twenty five years after reading this book for the 1st time I thought it was time to revisit it, I was not disappointed. A superb plot,fast moving,difficult to put down. Surely it is time to put Bourne to bed and bring this to the big screen......Ludlum....Legend....Buy It!!!!!!!!

Excellent! With some lessons for today’s world...

Best storyteller for me