A Simple Plan

by Scott Smith

Book Overview

It All Seemed So Simple... Two brothers and their friend stumble upon the wreckage of a plane-the pilot is dead and his duffle bag contains four million dollars in cash. The men agree to hide, keep and share the fortune. But what started off as a simple plan slowly devolves into a gruesome nightmare none of them can control. From the Paperback edition.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679419853
• ISBN13: 9780679419853
• Release Date: August 1993
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 335 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

LOVED the movie. The book is... ugh

Giving it 2 stars because the writing is really solid. But why why why is this told in first person? The lead guy has the personality of a cheese grater covered in salt. What an insufferable narcissist. He brings the otherwise interesting plot down into the gutter with his constant whining and his nonstop hatred for everyone around him. What a delightful person.

A Simple Plan

When I ordered this book, I thought that it would be an interesting book to read. It did not turn out that way at all. After the intro into the characters lives and a description of them and their personalities, then you find out what the story is about. Okay, so I read on and then, we see get the plot to the story. In no way was this story making any sense. It just got more and more ridiculous. I found my that I still wanted to read on, in hopes that the story would 'straighten out' and become worth reading. Boy was I wrong. I'm not sure what chapter I was on (they were long and boring). It just got to a point were I kept saying, 'really, really' ? I do not recommend it at all.

Thin line between good and evil.

The book starts out with a great intro, and from there there is no stopping to the madness. I like it when an uather takes the human condition to its extreme. How suddenly killing would be so easy compesation to our securities. how our inner dysfunctional conflict are burried deep with and would only arise for the most superficial thing on earth, in this case:MoNY. A lot of people will be skeptical. But it is a one of a kind thriller looking at people with a chance to change and reach their high castle dreams over night, discovering that it is not about the source of change. It is about who they really are. The line between good and evil is really thin. Great book.

Greed is Evil

This book was a page-turner because there were very exciting parts in it. It was not to hard to concentrate on the story but sometimes I had to look back in the book to check a character or a place. I did not connect to a character in this story because characters in the book kill many people mainly for money and I could not do that. I like the genre because it sounded like the story could really happen. I like the style of writing in this book, and an example is that the author makes the story very believable like it could happen to almost anybody. The book was not boring but very exciting and my mind did not wander when I was reading. I would recommend this book to people who like adventure and mystery books. This book was terrific because it held suspense and you would never know what event would happen next.

A gripping depiction of our darker side

When I began this novel, I already had an inkling of what the trajectory of the plot would be, based upon the information on the book jacket. It's no secret that the story revolves around what unfolds when three men accidentally stumble upon a plane that has crashed with millions of dollars in cash on board. The bulk of the book explores the grim consequences of this discovery. Despite the generally predictable and even formulaic nature of the plot overall, Smith has done an amazingly skillful job of creating a page-turner of a suspense novel that is nearly impossible to put down. The particulars of just how things go awry for the various principals involved are spun out in ingenious fashion over several hundred extremely well-written pages.This book not only tells a gripping (and sometimes gory) tale of how a seemingly "simple plan" goes awry, it also provides clear insight into the darker side of the human condition, that is, how under particular circumstances even seemingly "nice, normal people" can end up committing and rationalizing the most heinous deeds, always with "good reasons" behind their actions. The way that Smith lays bare the fragility of human ethics and morals sadly rings true, and renders the book as depressing as it is horrifying and suspenseful. Overall, it's a terrific read that should not be missed.

MONEY IS INDEED THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL...

This is, without a doubt, an amazing debut novel. It is a modern day morality tale, which sees people's lives change significantly, when they come upon a veritable treasure trove of money. The change is not necessarily for the better, as the reader will discover. The plot revolves around two, small town brothers, Hank and Jacob Mitchell, who, along with Jacob's friend, Lou, inadvertently come upon a downed plane that is buried in the snow, deep in the woods of a rural area. In that plane is a dead pilot, along with four million dollars in cold, hard cash. All three of them could sure use the money. The question is, what are they going to do about it? They come up with what they think is a simple plan. They will take the money and just wait and see, not spending it, until the coast seems clear. From the moment they make this decision, life is never the same for any of them. Hank, taking charge of the money for safekeeping, begins to undergo a change that is seemingly uncharacteristic of one who is outwardly so respectable, rational, and benign of countenance. As the issue of the money begins to divide the three accomplices, greed and betrayal bubble to the surface, to culminate in a series of chilling, cold blooded murders. Meanwhile, Hank, manipulated by his Ma Barker of a wife, Sarah, begins a personal downward spiral, succumbing to an evil so profound, that it will leave the reader open mouthed. What happens to them all makes for an amazingly powerful and riveting story of psychological suspense. Written in clean, spare prose, this well crafted novel is a riveting page turner that grips the reader from the inception, holding the reader in its thrall until its climactic conclusion. The ending serves to show the reader that what goes around, does, indeed, come around.

absolutely mesmerizing

This book sat in my bookcase for months until I finally decided to read it. What an excellent decision! The story was absolutely mesmerizing with a fantastic plot and very well written. It was tightly constructed with no obvious loose ends.This first novel held my interest as the narrator Hank, an accountant, reveals how he, his older brother Jacob and Jacob's friend Lou accidently discover a crashed plane and over $4 million hidden within its fuselage. From the decision to take the money, Hank reveals the thoughts and emotions, the fear, anxiety and the development of sociopathy with rationalization and self-preservation justifying increasingly violent and irrational behavior. The story has the ability of allowing the reader to think along with Hank and his wife Sarah and compare their decisions to what the reader may have done in similar circumstances that makes this a great exercise in values clarification.