Boekhorst, J. B. te | Paperback / softback | 06-03-2015 | 9789082178043

This year will be toy store Salfrinch’s hundredth anniversary. A celebratory year, one might think. But for two years Salfrinch aren’t quite the market leaders in toys they used to be.
Nevertheless, ceo John Bowman wants to seize the opportunity to make this a memorable year. Salfrinch will hold a competition: people are challenged to create a toy. There is only one condition: it has to be about either Christmas or winter. The inventions of four winners will be manufactured and sold in the 1,200 stores of the toys giant. In December, the four winners plus a guest will go and hunt for a Christmas treasure. This treasure – 100,000 pounds – is hidden at the North Pole. Amongst the competitors are a self-made billionaire with his overweight son, a girl with a preference for high buildings juxtaposed to a fear of heights and darkness, and an asthmatic boy. It will be a terrible ordeal for all eight contestants to bear two weeks of bitter chills on the North Pole.
There is, however, one complication: Steve Salfrinch, the toy store founder’s great-grandson. As name bearer Steve thinks he should be the chief executive officer, not his brother-in-law John Bowman. He tries to sabotage the competition so that, due to its failure, his rival Bowman will have to step down. In order to do this Steve enlists two of his mistress’s cousins, who make their living by carrying out petty thefts. Due to the extreme coldness on the North Pole everything isn’t working out as it is supposed to. Then the two cousins Frank and Paul chance upon something unexpected. Will this endanger not only the competition, but also Christmas? The four couples have only two days left to sort it out before Christmas…