Think of a Number (Penguin Modern Classics – Crime & Espionage) by Anders Bodelsen

A nail-biting cat-and-mouse thriller by a leading light of Danish new wave crime - and the inspiration for the cult Christmas movie The Silent Partner, starring Elliott Gould

'THE THING IN MY POCKET IS A REVOLVER. HAND OVER THE CASH YOU'VE GOT IMMEDIATELY.'

This is the draft of a note that unassuming bank clerk Flemming Borck finds discarded at the counter one evening. It’s a chance discovery that changes his life. Calculating that somebody is planning a hold-up – and that this somebody is the man dressed as Father Christmas outside the shopping centre – Borck takes a gamble and hatches a plan to make himself rich.

But he soon finds that even the best-laid plans have a way of unravelling, in the most horrible and messy ways…