The Swap

Published by Vintage in paperback
12th June 2008
priced £7.99

 Another school reunion looms for Harvey Briscow, and once again he agonises over whether to attend. As the owner of a comic shop, devout drinker, smoker and full-time misanthropist, he’s spent much of his time wondering what might have been had he chosen another path. Nothing in Harvey’s life has changed since the last reunion, or indeed the one before, and short of fabricating a fantastic change of fortune there’s little to be gained by going. That is until Josh, his sole employee and one true friend, suggests he may have opportunity to reclaim a very rare comic Harvey once foolishly swapped…only then is he spurred into action.

On arrival at the crowded event he meets the sinister Charles 'Bleeder' Odd, who has now matured into a successful businessman and appears nauseatingly content with his lot. But as Harvey makes inroads to retrieve his lost comic, he begins to suspect that all is not as it seems. The worthless item he exchanged it for must have some significance…

The Swap cracks along at a tremendous pace. On one level Antony Moore’s debut is a superbly plotted thriller, on another, a hilarious black comedy that will amuse anyone who has attended, or considered attending, a school reunion.

Antony Moore was born in Cornwall and now lives in London. For a number of years he worked in the City but recovered and is now a practising Psychologist working in the NHS. He is happily involved, has one son and a brown Labrador named after one of the X-Men. He no longer collects comics and never attends school reunions. For more information on the swap go to the website http://www.the-swap.co.uk/