The Holcroft Covenant by Robert Ludlum

I picked this book for the Birth Year Reading Challenge. I decided to look for New York Times Bestsellers for the Year 1978 and Holcroft Covenant was second in the list. I read the three books in the Bourne series namely, Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum almost a decade ago. Ludlum writes great edge of seat thrillers, his books are as usual better than the movies.

Noel Holcroft is the son a Nazi father and an American Mother. Unable to bear the atrocities committed by Nazis, Holcroft's mother leaves his Nazi father and moves back to her home land where she remarries and creates a new life. Thirty years after the war, Noel is forced to think about his roots and do penance for his father's actions. Noel's father repents for Nazi atrocities and during his last days creates a plan to make good for some of his wrongs.

Noel is asked to form the Geneva covenant with hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from Nazi funds during the last days of the Third Reich to do good for thousands affected by Holocaust. To do this Noel has to get in touch with the first child of two other Nazis. How to find somebody who does not want to be found? Noel cannot withdraw from this mission, the covenant creators would kill him and his family. Noel gets a mysterious message from British Secret Service. All is not as it appears. Noel is an amateur but he is thrown into the games of professionals. He has to save himself and fulfil the mission. What is the truth behind the covenant? Will Noel find other members of the covenant? Will he form the covenant and do the penance?

The action takes place all over the world from Paris to Buenos Aires to Berlin to Geneva, UK and US. I like the "lessons" Noel learns to investigate and survive. It is an edge of seat action thriller with events following one after another, no time to really pause and think. Half-way through we realise that Geneva Covenant is not what it appears to be, but Noel doesn't know. There is a group trying to stop Noel start the covenant at all costs and another that wouldn't let him think of anything else and there is Tinamou, the assassin and the Sonnerkinder and of course the Fourth Reich. So many conspiracies and twists that after a point I lost track.

At 547 pages, The Holcroft Covenant is an enjoyable read with twists and turns. It count towards various challenges and my post for Crime Fiction Alphabet H.

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