When Your Number's Up by Patrick Osborne

When Your Number's Up by Patrick Osborne

When Your Number's Up

Misery meets Waking Ned set in a Dublin newsagent's.

Patrick Bridges is forty-four and lives alone a in a dingy bedsit. Despite working for minimum wage and being under the threat of eviction he still entertains dreams of being rich, believing that money can buy you anything, including love.

Mother of two, Janice, borrows a large sum of cash from local gangster, Frank Harris who warns that he also expects her to repay her late husband's gambling debt. She is brutally mugged and despite Patrick's best efforts to intervene, the attacker manages to escape with the money.

When Patrick loses his dead-end job he decides to sell his meagre belongings and drown his sorrows. Following a chance encounter with a homeless man named Larry, the idea of stealing a lottery machine and playing it for free is sown.

Patrick is determined to carry out the crazy plan but unfortunately it's not as straightforward as he first believed. To achieve his goal he's forced to take the local shopkeeper hostage and to lock out the store employees one of whom includes Janice. His dream of being rich soon turns into a nightmare when the disgruntled staff, local gangsters and the shopkeeper's ex-girlfriend get involved. Just staying alive has become a lottery.

When Your Number's Up is an action-packed, comedy heist caper with a gritty, satirical edge. The numerous twists and turns are guaranteed to>leave readers begging for answers right up until the thrilling end.