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: Early novel shines -- almost
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: What a smiling story
Review: My wife found this paperback at a small used bookstore in England. She enjoyed it so much she made it my present on her return. What a great present. It surely shows a great writers ability to pack a great story in so few pages. I have read a lot of his books but this being his first gave me a great feeling reading it knowing what would follow. I will tell all that you are missing a real good story if you don't read this one.
Rating:
Summary: Sweet revenge, very intelligent plot
Review: The twists and cunning in this book leave the movie Ocean's 11 far behind. I mentioned Ocean's 11 because the feeling I had while reading this book and watching that movie were the same - amusement mixed with oodles of plain fun.
Rating:
Summary: A really great start
Review: This is Jeffery Archer's 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 placed whispers Harvey Metcalfe pulls 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 twists in this book. This is a great way to get into Jeffery Archer work . . .
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