Elaborate plotting is the chief feature of The Holcroft Covenant. A spy-suspense novel succeeds or fails chiefly by the way it holds the reader's interest tightly to the plot, the line of action, and Ludlum's string of best sellers indicates that he holds enough readers' interests to succeed in this genre. Ludlum keeps the reader at bay through the use of parceled-out bits of information, as does any mystery writer, and he discusses the truth almost simultaneously with the hero. To prevent reader confusion, and since he is writing for a mass audience, Ludlum fills in with exposition or a shift of point of view to keep the developing action clear.

After years in the theater, Ludlum knows well the power that persists in the age-old stock types — hero, villain, seductress, deceiver, and so on, and his stock types help to move the plot along. The struggle...