[With "The Holcroft Covenant"] Robert Ludlum is back among the Nazis for his new conspiracy. The Nazis stand, of course, for unambiguous evil. It is a relief to be rid of ambiguity, which is an inflated currency in literature as in life. Solid evil, black gold, can be relied on. The good guys will be very, very good; and bad guys will be very, very bad; and everybody in between will be either a dupe or a victim. Instead of having to think, we will be tortured with surprises.

Mr. Ludlum stuffs more surprises into his novels … than any other six-pack of thriller-writers combined, out on a narrative toot…. [He] finds his characters on the backs of cereal boxes, his prose in movie magazines, his sex in the want ads and his paranoia in our dental cavities. Nevertheless he pleases and seduces, telling his story like a man...