- Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (Sep 25 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0307278271
- ISBN-13: 978-0307278272
- Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 2.8 x 17.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 204 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (180 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #599,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Once one accepts the bizarre premise of Smith's astonishingly adept, ingeniously plotted debut thriller, the book fulfills every expectation of a novel of suspense, leading the reader on a wild exploration of the banality of evil. Indeed, it is difficult to believe that a tyro writer could have produced so controlled and assured a narrative. When Hank Mitchell, his obese, feckless brother Jacob and Jacob's smarmy friend Lou accidentally find a wrecked small plane and its dead pilot in the woods near their small Ohio town, they decide not to tell the authorities about the $4.4 million stuffed into a duffel bag. Instead, they agree to hide the money and later divide it among themselves. The "simple plan" sets in motion a spiral of blackmail, betrayal and multiple murder which Smith manipulates with consummate skill, increasing the tension exponentially with plot twists that are inevitable and unpredictable at the same time. In choosing to make his protagonist an ordinary middle-class man--Hank is an accountant in a feed and grain store--Smith demonstrates the eerie ease with which the mundane can descend to the unthinkable. Hank commits the first murder to protect his brother and their secret; he eerily rationalizes the ensuing coldblooded deeds while remaining outwardly normal, hardly an obvious psychopath. Smith's imagination never palls; the writing peaks in a gory liquor store scene that's worthy of comparison to Stephen King at his best. Two things are certain about this novel of moral corruption: it will rocket to the top of the bestseller lists and the movie (rights have been sold to Mike Nichols) should be a corker. 75,000 first printing; BOMC and QPB alternates.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From School Library Journal
YA-On an afternoon jaunt, Hank, his brother, and a friend accidentally discover a wrecked plane. Inside they find the dead pilot and a sack containing four million dollars. The men know that they should notify the authorities, but instead they devise a foolproof scheme for keeping the money. They will hide it for one year, tell no one, live normally, and then divide the loot into three equal portions. Nothing can go wrong with such a simple plan-or can it? Smith draws his characters deftly, fully exploring the changes that occur in each of the men after their discovery. The plot is clever, gripping, and full of twists. As Hank narrates the story, the tension builds slowly, but is sustained until the surprise ending. YAs will quickly become caught up in this polished suspense novel.
Judy Sokoll, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Judy Sokoll, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Matchless mix of crime and horror,
This review is from: A Simple Plan (Mass Market Paperback)
A simple man with a simple and happy life suddenly has the opportunity to reach for something more when he and his even more simple brother and his simpler brother's tirelessly greedy friend discover the snow-covered wreck of an airplane. When the three find the horribly crow-ravaged body at the controls of the wreck, their first impulse is to call the local police of their rural town. Then they find the flier's cargo, a duffle bag bursting with hundred dollar bills, and they realize a chance that will kill them unless taken. The narrator and his brother Jacob are safe after a youth of uncertainty - their parents were killed in a freak accident that left the two indebted orphans. While the narrator seems to have adjusted to his comfortable, if nondescript life, his brother is a scarred shell, a delayed boy in a sad sack's body. Then there's Sarah, the narrator's prgenant wife who soon becomes the brains of the operation. The crew works slowly and carefully, taking small actions meant to preserve the veil they've woven, only to compound the risk of their discovery. Every move to further hide themselves and their money leads to further complications, driving them to even more desperate measures until their plans have become too costly to reverse. By the end of the book, we've seen an incredible metamorphosis of the narrator, not into an evil man - he's always the same simple guy, only he's discovered in himslef an incredible reservoir of willingness to perpetrate evil to protect what the money he didn't even want. It's an evil not the product of greed but by the narrator's being too simple to say "no". Magically being able to reach Stephen King heights of horor without relying on the supernatural as a metaphor for very real inner demons, and with beautifully unpretentious prose, Scott Smith's first novel is perfect. He is never judgmental about his charachters, yet remains honest about them. Be forewarned, Smith wields irony over his rural charachters like a scythe. Comparisons to the film "Fargo" are inevitable, but you won't find any little funny guy here.
3.0 out of 5 stars
It was ok...,
By WP "momto3" (Vancouver, BC, Ca) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Simple Plan (Paperback)
I know most people have rated this book much better than I, but unfortunately I found this book to be a little boring. Although you can't deny that the author has a talent for detail, I found the detail extremely overbearing in many sections, to the point where I was irritated and didn't want to continue. As for the storyline, a bad situation that consistently gets worse and worse, yes, but predictable from the beginning as it is so off the wall that I didn't find it believable at all. Not what I'd consider a 'gripping' book by far, but it was ok.
5.0 out of 5 stars
book or movie, the format doesn't get in the way,
By Wallace Depp (in the California High Desert) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Simple Plan (Mass Market Paperback)
Like others, I'm tempted to gravitate from a book review to a movie review, because after reading one and seeing the other, it's difficult not to make comparisons. While movies usually never measure up to a great book (Seabiscuit comes to mind) this one is an exception. Because the story is so compelling, I think the format may be irrelevant. The best movies, the best books (fiction i mean) have unforeseen twists and developments that make us flinch and then say, 'i should have seen that coming!' This is a moral thriller that reveals the darkest side of the human heart--read it or watch it.
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