The Holcroft Covenant

Infobox Book |
name = The Holcroft Covenant
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = "The Holcroft Covenant" first edition cover.
author = Robert Ludlum
illustrator =
cover_artist = John Knights
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
subject =
genre = Spy novel
publisher = HarperCollins
pub_date = July 27, 1978
english_pub_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 494 pp "(first edition)"
isbn = ISBN 0246110481
oclc =
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Holcroft Covenant" is a 1978 novel by Robert Ludlum. In 1985 it was made into a film of the same name.

Plot

The novel concerns Noel Holcroft, New York architect—and secretly the son of Heinrich Clausen, chief economic advisor to the Third Reich. At some point in the 70s, 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, screened for physical and psychological frailties, were sent to isolated hamlets and right-wing communities 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, to finally take over the world. Their leader, the Tinamou, is the world's deadliest assassin.

As he attempts to carry out what he believes to be the noble, secret mission of his biological father, Holcroft 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, is forced to learn on the job.

Publication history

*1978, UK, HarperCollins ISBN 0246110481 Pub date July 27, 1978, Hardback
*1979, UK, Granada ISBN 0586048162, Pub date 1979, Paperback
*1980, US, Putnam Pub Group ISBN 0399900012, Pub date April 1980, Hardback
*1980, US, Bantam Books ISBN 055314491X, Pub date 1980, Paperback