Customer Reviews

Not a Penny More Not a Penny Less

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Have you ever wanted to get even? I mean *really* even. That's the plot in Jeffrey Archer's first novel. Four disparate men are each swindled out of their life's savings by a clever con man. How they combine to get even and try to reclaim what is rightfully theirs makes for a brilliantly plotted, fact-paced read peopled by sympathetic characters. Stephen, an Oxford professor, Robin, a Harley Street physician, Jean-Pierre Lamanns, a French art dealer, and James Brigsley, an English lord, all find themselves in identical circumstances. Singularly, they are powerless, but united they develop a plan to win back their lost money without exacting any further punishment than attaining not a penny more, not a penny less, of that which was stolen from them.

Although this is quite different from Archer's later family sagas such as KANE AND ABEL, AS THE CROW FLIES, and others, it is no less ingenious or entertaining. This is a light-hearted romp filled with humor, romance, and revenge. There's also a knock-your-socks off ending to end all endings.

Couldn't wait to read this each day and was sorry when I finished it because I didn't have the pleasure of anticipation the next day. Jeffrey Archer has woven a thoroughly enjoyable tale of a scoundral - Harvey - who cheats anyone anyway he can. Through an innocent third party, he manages to dupe four men out of a total of $1,000,000. One of these, a university professor, determines to follow his father's motto: don't get angry, get even. The professor puts together a dossier on Harvey and contacts the three other men and convinces them to come up with a way to get the money they lost back. (They had all invested in north sea oil shares that turned out to be worthless.) The schemes they develop and carry out are not only brilliant, but also very humorous reading. The delightful twist at the end had me laughing all through the last chapter. This book is skillfully written and sure to be enjoyed by Archer fans. Anyone who has not read his books, would surely become a fan after reading "Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less".

In some ways, this is my favourite Archer novel -- the plot and the characters are wonderful.

The book suffers from his lack of experience (it was his first published novel). The story is slow to get started (considering the length of the novel) and the ending is more contrived than the endings of his later books. Occasionally, the dialogue is stilted, and there are viewpoint shifts that happen without notice.

However, Archer is a great storyteller, and this story just keeps moving. Essentially, this is a revenge tale, in which four men swindled by a master con-artist decide to get back exactly what he stole from them. They embark on a series of scams in order to extract the money from the miscreant. The scams are just barely believable, and one of the strengths of the book is the way that the author drags you in and gets you to believe that these exotic plots can work.

This is an excellent short novel, with lots of light suspense and much to admire. It is well worth the time it takes to read.

British mystery master Jeffrey Archer never fails to intrigue with his imaginative plotting and incomparable characters. Anyone who has ever been bilked can well relate to the four profiled in "Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less." We're talking about being stiffed big time here - each lost everything he had to Harvey Metcalfe, con man par excellence.

The four men are strangers but they're brought together by a common goal - get Harvey Metcalfe, and get him good. It's a dissimilar quartet, an Oxford don, a physician, a French art dealer, and an English lord. However, between them they produce a plan that will not only break Metcalfe but make him suffer to boot.

Listeners are treated to an action filled chase that takes them to some of the most glamorous spots in the world - Monte Carlo, Ascot, New York, and London. Revenge is the name of this game, and they won't quit until they've exacted it.

Martin Jarvis reads with suave assurance as he carries us along on a fascinating chase. Can four fellows inexperienced in duplicity out con a first-rate con man?

- Gail Cooke

If you want a story of people who are deceived, and who want to get back at the deceiver, no matter what it takes, then this is the novel for you. There are other novels with the same theme, but when the same is handled by a master story teller, then it stands apart from all of them in terms of the scenes, plots, pace (or its variation), moods etc. There is no doubt about it.

Harvey Metcalfe, whose business acumen (irrespective of the moral connotations) had been sharpened on the streets, cons four unsuspecting investors (who are strangers to each other, but who had been baited by Harvey for carrying out his plans), with prospects of huge oil money. And they not common folk - each of them is a person to reckon with - Stephen, an Oxford professor, Robin, a high profile physician, Jean-Pierre, a famous art dealer (and he is French), and James Brigsley, an heir to earldom. They have one aspect in common - they have all been ripped off by Harvey - for a sum of one million dollars.

How they join hands and get back at Harvey, forms the rest of the story, in this thriller saga of revenge, with cunning and deceit. The pace never wanes any time, and I never wanted to keep the book down. If you liked the Payback movie, you are going to love this novel more, since it has 4 people wanting revenge - not a penny more, not a penny less... that is their motto, and they stand by it.

I expected a page-turner, and got one in this. It has the intelligence, pace, language, plot, characters - all that makes this a great novel, which is expected from a novelist of such acclaim as Archer. I read this after finishing Kane and Abel and The Prodigal Daughter, and should say that this novel is devoid of any unnecessary digressions, in spite of handling at least four players.

Do they finally succeed in their enterprise? The way Archer has written the ending of the novel is worth noticing. You have to read it till the end to get the thrill (and the fun)

Must buy for long weekends, long journeys, or simply anytime you want to spend your time with a good novel. I would recommend this book to all my friends.

This is Jeffery Archers first book. And what a great first book it is! The Novel is a stunning tale of fraud and revenge. With a fake oil company and a few well places "rumor" Harvey Metcalfe pulla off an easy multi-million-dollar swindle. One of his victims, a university professor, decides to get even. With a dossier on Harvey the professor contacts the other three victims and convinces them to come up with a way to get their money back. There are many wonderful twist in this book. This is a great way to get into Jeffery Archer work....

When four men lose their life savings to a wealthy Boston swindler in a stock market scam, how will they get their money back? That's the plot of this highly entertaining novel that can best be summed up as: don't get mad, get even. Their goal is to recoup exactly the $1 million they collectively lost, hence the title of the book. With revenge that can be described as "playful" rather than mean-spirited, the book has a light-hearted tone that will leave readers upbeat.

As the reader of more than half a dozen novels by Jeffrey Archer and one collection of short stories, I thought it was about time to read his very first novel.

Often, after I have sampled an author and decided I like their writing, it is fun to go back and read their first efforts - seeing how they have matured over the years and polished their craft. But in this instance, I had another reason as well: the man himself fascinates me. I realize his personal life is as scandalous as his fictional characters, and if you happen to be a Brit, he probably ranks right up there with the royal family in terms of tabloid coverage. But you have to hand it to the guy: for someone who was on the brink of bankruptcy and forced to step down from political office in financial disgrace, he didn't sit around and moan. He took up pen and paper, wrote his first novel, and launched a stellar writing career.

I have no idea if the novel was simply catharsis for him, or if he was confident enough in his abilities to think he could regain his fortunes with just a single book. For those that don't know the story, he invested $1 million of his own money in the early 1970s in a Canadian company that turned out to be a scam. He found himself almost penniless overnight and although he did not ultimately declare bankruptcy, he came awfully close.

But the rest, as they say, is history. The fact that he sat down to write rather than just curl up in the fetal position tells me something about the tenacity of the human spirit in this man. So, it was with much anticipation that I got my hands on a copy of "Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less," Archer's first novel. I was looking forward to seeing the book that started a remarkably prolific career. And I suspected that more than a few details in the book would be drawn from his personal experience being swindled out of his own life's savings.

The book is a wonderful read. Comical, witty, well-paced and well-plotted, Archer shows his skill as one of the world's foremost storytellers. The ending is highly satisfying and includes a twist on the very last page (literally) that puts the icing on the cake.

A good sign, for me, that I have loved a book is when looking at the cover brings back strong emotions, and visualizations of the stories within the story.

This definitely is the case for "Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less."

This story is about a businessman who bilked $1,000,000 out of 4 men. Each of these men are from very different professions. And each of these men decided to get together to devise a plan that will get their money back. They emphasize the exact amount, not a penny more, nor less.

For those who don't believe in revenge, deception of the like, I still say that this book is great, because their focus is upon their worthiness, using the crook's, that is Harvey Metcalfe's style and fears against him.

As I read this book, I there were so many "wow's," "Uh oh's," and "go for it's," that I was there, a strong part of the plot.

And the phrase that has stuck in my mind the most, from this book, the phrase that the 4 men used to guide them to get what is rightfully there's is, "Think Like a Jew. Act Like a Brit."

For me, while I understand that this phrase counts upon stereotypes, this means be analytic, decisive and determined, while you remain charismatic - The results are always pleasant.

But, it's a great book, anyway.

I recently found a copy of Jeffrey Archer's first book in an Op-Shop and nearly passed it by..it was an old and battered original paperback, and was convinced that I'd read it 30 years ago when it was first published. Flicking through it, it dawned on me that I'd only THOUGHT I'd read it and was delighted to start on it at once, and what a super read it is! It's in the fresh language of a new author and full of the funny and intriguing plots of four men who have been swindled out of large sums of money by an American con man, Harvey Metcalfe. The leader of the four men is a brilliant mathematician who is working as a Professor at Oxford University and who thought up the idea of the four "suckers" getting together to not only get revenge on Metcalfe but also to retrieve their money. The men, a Harley Street doctor, the owner of a prestigious London art gallery and the son of an Earl, concoct several ingenious plans to this end and the result is a very likeable book which was great fun to read, albeit 30 years after everyone else!

An easy read on a obvious story line. Keep reminding yourself that this book was written in 1973 and you'll enjot it more.