The Swap by Antony Moore pulled me in immediately, setting up the engaging story of Harvey, a seemingly decent but loser-type guy who spends his days regretting the swap he made over twenty years ago, the swap of Superman comic to a bullied child nicknamed Bleeder.  The comic is now worth in the hundreds of thousands and it is the fish that got away in Harvey’s life, the Holy Grail, the key to turning his life around and getting him to America to set up a comic/coffee shop in New York City.  Harvey is not the most mature of guys but I was willing to bet on him.

Bad bet. The weekend of his school reunion arrives and Harvey slumps and drinks his way down to Cornwall to see old friends.  He hopes against hope to see Bleeder again and to have a shot at getting back the Superman he swapped away years ago.  The surprises of the book, some funny, some grisly, some dead, and some erotic, begin to kick in.  Harvey is offered the chance to change his life, his ways, his filthy habits, and his loser-dom status. He knows this is a chance being offered to him, he understands again and again what an amazing weekend of opportunity this has turned out to be.  But Harvey doesn’t change, he is  schlump a the start and he is a schlump to the finish.  The fact that he brings a woman to sexual ecstasy again and again is a testament to the powers of the woman and a lesson to men: find the right woman, and you too can appear to be a sexual god.

The sad realization for me at the end of the book is that Harvey is a jerk, was a jerk, and will always be a jerk.  Sad.  I want more out of  a novel than just static jerkiness.  This book was entertaining, sure, and even funny, but in the end it was a big flat disappointment, a tease that did not deliver.

Or did I just not like the ending of the book because I hate tangled messes?  I always want to see confusion straightened out and problems solved (or at least a solution attempted).  Harvey is caught in  spider web of accusations, guilt, past and present crimes, apathy, and personality, both his own and of the other players in this madcap piece of vengeance and reward.  Harvey is the fly that’s been drugged with the feel-good but paralyzing venom of the spider: he’s the victim,  as he’s been all along.

Moral of the novel: always go to the police when you encounter a murder victim.  Always.  Even if it means giving up the one that got away.