A Google user
There is a type of Brit who thrives on the concept of Personal Justice - an eye for an eye - etc... This is the philosophy of the urban vigilante. The government is doing nothing; ditto the police, so we'll have to do it ourselves.
I would call these people Archetypes, after Jeffrey Archer, who writes Boys Own yarns, getting in the odd dig about the incompetence of HM Government - of which he was once a prominent & outspoken Member.
His characters are black and white. The Villains - corrupt parasites, often from unsuitable countries, feeding off the Good Chaps - OE; Oxbridge; clean-cut, white Brits - SAS types - and Ivy League Americans, lending a hand.
This type of book was popular in the 1920 & 30's.
Writers such as Leslie Charteris, part Chinese; part Brit wrote "X Esquire" and "The Bandit" about killers who did what was necessary.
Edgar Wallace wrote a book called "The Three Just Men" & followed it with "The Four Just Men". He wrote at great speed, as he had gambling debts to settle. The books were harmless hokum and "Not a Penny More or Less" is a direct lift from the Wallace oeuvre.
Archer's dialogue is stilted - it reads like prose. Archer maintains the pace at the expense of credibility, incorporating massive compliance of his characters with coincidence. The characters themselves are cardboard cut-out stereotypes, people that Archer would like to be?
Dr. Robin Oakley, of Harley Street, the "dangerously handsome" GP; James Brigsby, ineffectual heir to the Earl of Louth, a thoroughly decent fellow, the voice of common sense - "Come on, chaps, let's give it a go!"
He drives, wouldn't you know, an Alfa-Romeo.
I could have written this critique after thirty pages & I'm afraid it gets worse.
One wonders if he ever edits his M/S? There are so many unnecessary repetitions; implausibilities and jingoisms.
And, for someone who aspires to the nobility - "Dentures" (P39). and at P 86..."He returned to his "home" in the Kings Road ..."
There is absolutely no tension in the development of the story (he learned nothing from Wallace) and the plot is given away on the back page.
Archer has admitted that he "wrote" Not a Penny to make money. In this, he was being faithful to poor old Edgar, who was permanently skint from horses that kept losing.
Much of his "writing" is based on personal and imagined experiences. During a presentation at Oxford (he was not an undergrduate, but inferred that he was), the exchange, below, took place.
"At the interval I went to the toilet, and there beside me was Ringo Starr. He asked if I knew this Jeffrey Archer bloke. I said everyone in Oxford was trying to work out who he was. Ringo said: 'He strikes me as a nice enough fella, but he's the kind of bloke who would bottle your piss and sell it.'[8] (Wikipedia)
But best of all was the judges references during Archers trial for giving cash to a prostitute, Monica Coglan:
"Remember Mary Archer in the witness-box. Your vision of her probably will never disappear. Has she elegance? Has she fragrance? Would she have, without the strain of this trial, radiance? How would she appeal? Has she had a happy married life? Has she been able to enjoy, rather than endure, her husband Jeffrey?" The judge then went on to say of Jeffrey Archer, "Is he in need of cold, unloving, rubber-insulated sex in a seedy hotel round about quarter to one on a Tuesday morning after an evening at the Caprice?"[14] (Wikipedia)
A Google user
This one is a inspirational, a thriller, and everything packed in one. Jeffery Archer is a genius!
2 people found this review helpful
naval upadhyay
Story is full of surprises and you will love the ending. You will keep asking for more. The best part of the novel is its quirky humor which is missing in later works of Jeffery Archer......
4 people found this review helpful