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Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less is Jeffrey Archer’s first novel,published in 1976, and a reflection of Archer’s real-life experience of near-bankruptcy.
The plot centers around Harvey Metcalfe, a messenger boy who advanced into being a mogul through striking shady deals. He cheats one Stephen Bradley, a professor at the Oxford University by selling inflated oil stocks of a scam company Prospecta Oil, engaged in North Sea drilling. Enraged, Stephen finds that the same person has also cheated Dr Robin Oakley, a physician, Jean-Pierre Lamanns, a French art dealer, and James Brigsley, heir to an earldom. Finding that there is no legal recorse to get their money back, Bradley organizes a caper with these three to get their money back. Jean-Pierre gets Harvey to buy a fake Van Gogh painting, Robin collects a large bill faking an appendicitis operation on Harvey, Stephen impersonates an Oxford official and persuades Harvey to make a contribution in exchange for a honorary degree. James instructs the others to execute a complex financial fraud. Through these measures they manage to recover virtually the entire money, but finally finds their stock rise as oil had been discovered next to Prospecta Oil’s tract. The novel ends with Stephen trying to figure out how to give the stolen million back.