Book excerpt: It was the perfect crime ... until they got away with it. Now available for the first time in English, the prize-winning bestseller that inspired the film starring Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Kwanten and Sam Worthington. The year is 1983. Ronald Reagan is president, Michael Jackson is doing the Moon Walk and The Police's 'Every Breath You Take' is topping the charts. A group of childhood friends decide they want money. Real money. The best way to do it is simple, they agree, all they have to do is commit the perfect crime. So they draw up a list. So begins an astonishing true story of an audacious kidnapping carried out in broad daylight by a group of twenty-something lads with no priors ... Told from the compelling perspective of Cor van Hout, the brains behind the crime, KIDNAPPING MR. HEINEKEN reconstructs the meticulous planning behind the kidnap, the delivery of the ransom - and reveals what finally led everything to unravel ... With unique access to the kidnappers, Peter R. De Vries' story is not to be missed.