Rating: 
Summary: Con Artists, Times 5
Review: I've read most of Jeffrey Archer's works. I first got hooked on his short stories, with their twists. Since then, I've read everything I could get my hands on. All have twists, but some were no surprise to me, while other's really caught me off guard.
This one caught me off guard. It was a fascinating story of how several different men came together to try and recover their losses from a con man. The con man in question, a Harvey Metcalf, knew what he was doing. He set up a company with the sole intent of defrauding the public, but in a clever enough way to never get caught at it. However, four men, a Oxford Professor, an Art Gallery Owner, a Harley Street Doctor, and an English Lord with a taste for the ladies, the biggest victims, meet with the goal of getting their losses back.
Three of them come up with scams of their own in a few weeks; all designed to con the con artist. The fourth, the English Lord, can't come up with one, though his talent as an actor plays a great part in the other scams. However, his girlfriend / fiance' / wife DOES come up with one... and THAT scam is the biggest twist of the novel.
"Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less" is an apt title - the defrauded men want nothing more back than their money - plus all expenses they incur recovering them. Do they get it? Can they end up with their account in balance? The short answer is no - they were still owed $1.24 at one point... but that changed overnight....
Rating:
Summary: READ WITH SUAVE ASSURANCE
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: Amusing tale of a swindler swindled
Review: Harvey Metcalfe, an unscrupulous American businessman, cons four different men into between them investing a million dollars in a dud oil company, Prospecta Oil. Then the oil company vanishes along with the money. The four men get together and decide to recover their lost money by in turn swindling Harvey for the exact amount he took from them - hence the title, not a penny more, not a penny less. They all come up with complex, cunning schemes for getting omeny out of Harvey, and carry out each scheme in turn. The first one, involving a very sahdy art deal, was my favourite, but they are all clever, though several of them come close to failure. There are several clever plot twists in this story, and a very amusing ending. I felt that the characters were a bit indistinct, none of them struck me as particulalry memorable, but in a story of this kind the plot is the thing, and the plot in this one is amusing and gripping enough to keep you turning the pages until the end, and the ending is very good.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Revenge Novel---Liberally Laced With Humor
Review: 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.
|
