Four men invest their life savings in a North Sea oil company. The next day they realise they've been conned. With nothing to lose, the four men - an Oxford don, a Harley Street doctor, an art dealer and a lord - get together to hatch a plan, con the conman and get back every penny they lost.
Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less has a great idea behind it. Four men, each with their own talents and connections, work together to con the man who tricked them out of thousands of dollars. It's a shame that Archer couldn't pull it off. The schemes the men come up with are clever - although the conman is conveniently gullible at times - but too often Archer misses opportunities to ratchet up the tension so that I never felt involved in the action. There is also little in the way of character development. Each of the characters he has created have potential; the young lord struggling under the expectations of his family, the society doctor bored with his wealthy, needy patients, the French art dealer navigating his way through society, and the brilliant but naive American scholar. However, like the plot, Archer misses opportunity after opportunity. His characters lacked personality, back story and, for the most part, emotions and so I never really understood their motivations (beyond retrieving their lost money) or grasp what was at stake if they didn't succeed.
This may be a little harsh. Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less was a diverting read on a rainy day and I would have forgiven Archer if the ending hadn't been so bloody disappointing. It was like he just ran out of ideas and gave up in the final few chapters, writing a conclusion so lazy, contrived and frankly implausible that I felt cheated. In summary, it's a great idea poorly executed.
Read On: Maybe I'll give Archer another chance with Kane and Abel. Or maybe I won't.
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