 First edition (UK) | |
| Author | Robert Ludlum |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | John Knights |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Espionage |
| Publisher | Granada (UK) Richard Marek (US) |
Publication date | July 27, 1978 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 494 pp (first edition) |
| ISBN | 0-246-11048-1 |
| OCLC | 59182171 |
The Holcroft Covenant is a 1978 thriller novel by Robert Ludlum. In 1985 it was made into a film of the same name. [1]
The novel concerns Noel Holcroft, New York City architect and secretly (and unknown to Noel prior to the events of the novel) the son of Heinrich Clausen, chief economic adviser to the Third Reich. At some point in the 1970s, Holcroft is contacted by the Grande Banque de Geneve, concerning his father's will and testament. The testament says that in the last half of the war, Clausen found out about the Holocaust. Horrified and desperate to make amends, he and his two friends stole vast amounts of money from thousands of individual sources throughout the Reich and funneled them into a secure account in Zurich, Switzerland. Now, if Holcroft will contact the children of the two friends, they can form a group to distribute the funds and alleviate some of the pain of the Holocaust.
Ranged against him in this noble endeavor is the last trace of the Third Reich: the children of Projekt Sonnenkinder. In the dying days of the war, a vast search went out throughout Germany. The children of Germany's finest, those without physical and psychological frailties, were sent to isolated hamlets all over the world by airplane and U-boat. They were raised, provided for, and indoctrinated. Those who showed promise were inducted into the conspiracy by their elders; those that weren't were "removed." They have waited thirty years for the funds so as to finally take over the world. Their leader, the Tinamou, is the world's deadliest assassin.
As Holcroft attempts to carry out what he believes to be the noble, secret mission of his biological father, he is continuously blindsided as good guys turn out to be bad guys, bad guys turn out to be good guys, and Holcroft, who has no training whatsoever in intelligence and espionage, is forced to learn on the job.
Ludlum says the novel was inspired by a "what if" question. "What if Nazi children at the end of World War Two were being saved so that in the next generation they could revive the Third Reich? British intelligence had traced down the rumour and found it false. But that didn't stop me spinning it out into a story. You can call me a paranoiac if you like. But what I basically am is a skeptic." [2]
The Los Angeles Times called it a "rivetting, suspense-filled read." [3] The novel was a best seller. [4]
Robert Ludlum was an American author of 27 thriller novels, best known as the creator of Jason Bourne from the original The Bourne Trilogy series. The number of copies of his books in print is estimated between 300 million and 500 million. They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.
The Bourne Identity is a 1980 spy fiction thriller by Robert Ludlum that tells the story of Jason Bourne, a man with remarkable survival abilities who has retrograde amnesia, and must seek to discover his true identity. In the process, he must also determine why several shadowy groups, a professional assassin, and the CIA want him dead. It is the first novel of the original Bourne Trilogy, which also includes The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.
The Bourne Supremacy is the second Jason Bourne novel written by Robert Ludlum, first published in 1986. It is the sequel to Ludlum's bestseller The Bourne Identity (1980) and precedes Ludlum's final Bourne novel, The Bourne Ultimatum (1990).
The Sigma Protocol is the last novel written completely by Robert Ludlum, and was published posthumously. It is the story of the son of a Holocaust survivor who gets entangled in an international conspiracy by industrialists and financiers to take advantage of wartime technology.
Roots: The Saga of an American Family is a 1976 novel written by Alex Haley. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century Mandinka, captured as an adolescent, sold into slavery in Africa, and transported to North America. It explores his life and those of his descendants in the United States, down to Haley. The novel was quickly adapted as a hugely popular television miniseries, Roots (1977). Together, the novel and series were a cultural sensation in the United States. The novel spent forty-six weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, including twenty-two weeks at number one.
The Road to Gandolfo is a story by Michael Shepherd about General MacKenzie Hawkins, a military legend and Army veteran. He defaces an important Chinese memorial as a result of being drugged by a Chinese general and is later kicked out of the Army. Seeking revenge, he plots to kidnap Pope Francesco I and hold him for ransom of $400 million, one dollar for every Catholic in the world.
The Prometheus Deception is a spy fiction thriller novel written in 2000 by Robert Ludlum about an agent in an ultraclandestine agency known only as the Directorate named Nick Bryson, alias Jonas Barett, alias Jonathan Coleridge, alias The Technician, who is thrown into a fight between an organization he knows as Prometheus and his former employers at the Directorate.
The Ringworld Engineers is a 1979 science fiction novel by American writer Larry Niven. It is the first sequel to Niven's Ringworld and was nominated for both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1981.
The Scorpio Illusion is a 1993 novel by Robert Ludlum. It is a mix of suspense, drama, action and thriller.
The Apocalypse Watch (1995) is a novel by Robert Ludlum. A TV movie based on it aired in 1997 which starred Patrick Bergin and Virginia Madsen. This was Ludlum's second novel to focus on a neo-Nazi conspiracy to take over the world, after The Holcroft Covenant (1978).
The Janson Directive is a novel by Robert Ludlum. The posthumous novel was published in 2002, a year after Ludlum's death.
The Tristan Betrayal is a novel by Robert Ludlum, published posthumously in 2003. Ludlum wrote an outline shortly before his death. The novel itself was written by a ghostwriter.
The Rhinemann Exchange is a novel of suspense by Robert Ludlum, set in the middle of the Second World War.
The Holcroft Covenant is a 1985 thriller film based on the 1978 Robert Ludlum novel of the same name. The film stars Michael Caine and was directed by John Frankenheimer. The script was written by Edward Anhalt, George Axelrod, and John Hopkins.
The Bourne Ultimatum is the third Jason Bourne novel written by Robert Ludlum and a sequel to The Bourne Supremacy (1986). First published in 1990, it was the last Bourne novel to be written by Ludlum himself. Eric Van Lustbader wrote a sequel titled The Bourne Legacy fourteen years later.
The Road to Omaha is a novel by Robert Ludlum published in 1992. It is a sequel to his earlier book The Road to Gandolfo. Both are comedic thrillers concerning Army lawyer Sam Devereaux, who gets caught up in the schemes of General MacKenzie "The Hawk" Hawkins. The Hawk is seeking revenge after being unfairly drummed out of the United States Army at the start of the first book.
Sweet William is a 1975 novel written by Beryl Bainbridge, it was made into a 1980 film of the same name for which Bainbridge wrote the screenplay.
Close to Home, is the second novel by English author Deborah Moggach, first published in 1979 by Collins. It is mentioned in the 6th edition of the Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide. Like her first novel You Must Be Sisters it is semi-autobiographical and relates to a time when she was living in Camden Town with two small children, a husband who was often away on business, and struggling to write a novel.
The Sweet-Shop Owner is the debut novel of English author Graham Swift. It was published in 1980 to largely favourable reviews.
Territorial Rights is a novel by the Scottish author Muriel Spark published in 1979.