Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less

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 are not common folk - each of them is a notable person in his right - Stephen is an Oxford professor, Robin is a high profile physician, Jean-Pierre, a famous art dealer, and James Brigsley, an heir to earldom. They have one aspect in common - they have all been ripped off by Harvey - for a huge sum of money (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.


Amusing tale of a swindler swindled   July 9, 2004
 2 out of 5 found this review helpful

Harvey Metcalfe, a shady American businessman, cons four men into buying between them a million dollars worth of shares in a dud oil company, Prospecta Oil, then disappears with the money. The four men get together and decide that they in turn will swindle Harvey out of the exact amount of money they lost to him - hence the title, not a penny more, not a penny less. They all come up with elaborate and crafty schemes for parting Harvey from his money. The first scheme, involving a a very shady art deal, is my favourite, but all the schemes are quite ingeneous. There are several unexpected twists to the plot, and a very funny ending. I didn't find the characters in this story particularly interesting, none of them struck me as having very distinctive personalities, but it doesn't really matter, in this story the plot is the thing, and the plot is very clever and amusing, making the deficincies of character unimportant. The book will keep you turning the pages eagerly until the end. One thing I did wonder about this Pan edition, why have Pan Books seen fit to replace their distinctive and charming logo, the sillhouette of Pan, with their present meaningless squiggle?


Dire   November 19, 2003
 3 out of 18 found this review helpful

Intense loathing for Archer himself would in theory have prevented me from ever coming into the remotest contact with this, his first book. But a friend whose judgment has often proved trustworthy assured me that it was a wonderful read, and with an excellent plot, and consequently pressed a copy upon me.
It is one of the worst novels I have ever read - the only consolation being that it can be read extremely quickly. As far as the plot is concerned: one character swindles four other characters, who then band together in the most unlikely circumstances [how many detective inspectors disrespect other people’s privacy and chuck names around as willingly as the one in chapter four?] in order to gain revenge. Which they do, in a series of farcical scenes, totally disconnected from one another. So much for plot.
As for the characters: they are all caricatures,
and of their inner lives and deep feelings we never learn a single thing. OK, they like to indulge their lust occasionally, and knock back the expensive champagne... but with Archer we never get beyond the most basic instincts. So much for psychological plausibility.
So what’s left? Perhaps the accumulated references to the sometimes quaint and eccentric traditons of English life (Ascot, Wimbledon, Oxford University, swanky London hotels) appeal to American readers just as they do the villain of the piece?
And as for the ending... I’d been hoping for a last minute reprieve from implausibility in the form of an unexpected twist in the tail. But no. True to form, Archer rounds it all off with most predictable part of all. Pulp fiction at its worst.