As a spy-suspense thriller, TheHoicroft Covenant does not put forward social concerns in a systematic or densely wrought manner, but references to a haunted past and fears of contemporary governmental abuses are part of the emotional impact of this novel. The main social or historical reference raises the nightmare of a potential resurgence of Nazism, spearheaded by a group of children of Nazis who had been deliberately dispersed around the world just prior to the collapse of the Third Reich. Such a phenomenon might not literally be possible — but a militant, even fanatic nationalism has been growing in a number of Third World countries.

Throughout the novel, the hero, Noel Holcroft, is attacked and deluded by the neo-Nazis, often with the help of people in a number of world governments, including the Americans. As the plot develops, it turns out that most of these accomplices...