A Simple Plan

I feel bad about giving a bad review. However, unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book. The writing was ok but I didn't connect with the main character from whose perspective the book was written. I felt that the attempt to build out internal conflict was not performed skillfully. Pacing was also a bit of an issue for me. It started very slow and stayed that way for a WHILE. When the action began, it kind of went to fast for me with a lot happening in a short span of the book. I felt like the book carried no real theme or purpose in the telling of the story. The book was written as if it was simply an account of events, rather than a novel. Positively, the story line had an interesting twist and I really appreciated that. : )

The novel turned out tone a disappointment due to unrealistic character developments and their reaction to circumstances around them. I keep reading it hoping for a turn around but it never happened.

This book reveals the most incredulous storyline I have ever read and believe me that says I lot becuase over the years I've read thousands of books. How could a mild-mannered, ordinary accountant be transformed into a thoughlessly cruel serial killer? How could his wife - a mother and seemingly kind and thoughtful person, time after time, condone his actions? It is a page turner because we want to see who he is going to kill next and what bizarre actions will follow-not because it is a well-written, positively thought-provoking read.

Thumbs down x 5 for this one!!!!!!

Not really worth one star in my opinion. There is no moral to the story and the guilty go unpunished. The only reason I read all the way through is...I kept expecting the tide t change and with justice at the end. I will not purchase another book by this author.

IMHO, poorly written and poorly plotted. Reading this book was like having someone behind me dragging fingernails over a chalkboard most of the time. I revere the written word. This is the first book that I simply gave up on and threw away.

I downloaded this book onto my Kindle for vacation reading, and with the book just half finished, I'm going to stop reading it. Life is too short to waste on bad writing, a completely unbelievable protagonist, and a plot that becomes increasingly unlikely. I'm all in favor of suspending disbelief for a good read, but this book is just bad. Invest your $9.99 on another choice.

One of the worst, most convoluted yet oddly predictable pieces of crap I've ever had the misfortune to kill time with. Exciting sample entices a buy, then it becomes a dull excercise in unabashed denial of morality. I really would like triple damages on my money back! Feh.

Another so called "Great Novel" turns out to be nothing more then a waste of my time!

In my never ending search to find dark themed novels I heard of Scott Smith's first novel A Simple Plan which is well liked by many people and other authors such as Stephen King. From the reviews I have read stating the story of Scott's first novel was very dark and very violent so much so that when it was made into a film they tuned the violence down and the darkness. So I got myself a copy thinking the ending has to be really dark in order for the film version to differ...however I was proven wrong.

The plot is two brothers and a friend are hitting to cemetery so both brothers can pay their respects to their parents that were killed in accident years ago. However a fox runs across the road forcing Jacob the older brother to crash his beat up truck in a ditch which his dog goes after it. So Jacob, his younger brother Hank and Jacob's friend Lou go after the dog however they find a crashed plan and inside with the dead pilot is a duffle bag filled with $4 million dollars. At first Hank doesn't want to take it but after some talking Hank agrees to take the money and split it with Jacob and Lou if however they agree to his plan of waiting 6 months before spending the money.

However not everything goes as plan. Lou tells his wife about the money as Lou threatens to blackmail Hank if he doesn't hand it over which leads him and Jacob to blackmail Lou but this plan back fires with Lou grabbing his shotgun and threatens to kill both of them however Jacob kills Lou as Hank then kills his wife along with Lou's friend Sonny to make it look like Lou's wife was cheating on her husband however Hank gets it in his head to kill his brother so the money is all for him and his family. By the end of it everything is looking good till the FBI come in and after killing one of the criminals who took the $4 million dollars after a hostage scene went awry as the two criminals both brothers tried to flee with the $4 million dollars however one was killed in a plane crash and the other trying to find it while disguise himself as a FBI agent.

Hank is then told by the FBI that the $4 million dollars is marked which means if any of those $100 dollar bills is spent anywhere they'll track it down. Hank ends up having to kill two more people after finding out his wife bought champagne and tells her the money is useless and he was ripped off in a scam for buying a fancy place in Florida as they are nearly broke. With nowhere to go and their future plans ruined Hank burns the money!

I have never been more disappointed in a stupid ending like this! For all Hank knows that the FBI agent who told him that the money was marked was something they pulled out of their asses! How the hell are they going to track down all of these $100 dollar bills. Hank could have even burned the plane so the FBI believes the money is destroyed or taken off to another country and have the money replace with different money and lived a new life style with his wife and daughter. I also thought maybe he would have gone greedy and kill them so he gets all the money for himself or even his wife killing Hank after finding out he was going to burn all of it. But no none of this happens as Scott doesn't have the balls to write a real dark ending as A Simple Plan is nothing but a waste of time! All these people killed for nothing!

Don't bother with this novel as you can find more darker crime novels then A Simple Plan

Though I'd seen the excellent movie version of this years ago, I wanted to track down the original book, and am glad I did. It's far more powerful, and goes deeper than the film. The book is a chronicle of how someone who is basically decent slides into absolute, unstoppable evil, much like Macbeth. The horror of what he must do to survive haunts the main character, and each terrible crime engenders worse ones. It's more of a horror novel than a crime novel in what it does to the people within its pages. Great story that stands as a classic.

Two things have happened since this book first appeared in the early 1990s that may have relevance to any conversation about Smith's masterpiece: Tony Soprano and Walter White. Both men, in their own ways, showed a vast television world how quickly evil can occur and how sometimes we enjoy seeing a darker side emerge victorious.

I found myself thinking of "The Sopranos" and "Breaking Bad" as I read this book and experienced the cold, wintry, scary world that Smith creates and sustains throughout one of the most suspenseful and understated books I've ever read. I enjoyed his depictions of place (the scenes of the small town and the desperate living quarters of the main character's brother), his characterization (Lou, for one, was excellently drawn and reminded me of some of Dennis Lehane's "worst" creations), and his writing. The scene toward the end in the convenience store -- played out while religious radio blares in the background is as American as anything written in the 20th Century.

In the end, the portrayal of evil in Smith's work is highly effective and this novel should be read by anyone wanting a smart thriller. It is a rare book that doesn't disappoint.

If you stumbled upon millions of dollars in cash and were fairly certain you could get away with it, would you take it? I would. I wish I could say with any degree of confidence that I'd do the right thing and turn it in to the authorities--but I know I wouldn't. I'd take it.

In Scott Smith's first book, this is the decision faced by three men--two brothers and their friend, when they discover a small plane that had crashed in the woods on the outskirts of their town containing a dead pilot and a duffel bag with $4.4 million dollars in cash. Without much debate they devise "a simple plan." Hank, one of the brothers will be in charge of taking the money and hiding it. They won't spend any of it for six months while they wait to see if anyone comes looking for it. If someone does, they'll burn it and no one will ever know they had taken it. If no one does, they'll be free to split it three ways and go off to start new lives as millionaires.

Fortunately for the book's readers, and unfortunately for the three of them, their simple plan is quickly undermined by loose lips, distrust, and a spur-of-the-moment murder committed by one of them in order to keep their secret safe.

The book is fantastically written. It succeeds in not just telling a great story that will make it difficult for you to put it down, but it also makes a compelling statement about just how close to the surface the evil that exists in some men's hearts can be. The book is very much in the spirit of Breaking Bad and Lord of the Flies and fans of either are bound to enjoy it.

This book blew me away when it was first released. I even called in sick to work to finish the second half, so riveted was I by the novel. Returning to it years later, it still packs an incredible wallop, perhaps even more suspenseful and devastating. Scott Smith's writing is incredible. He builds dread in a remarkably plain fashion. (This is true of his follow up, THE RUINS, as well.) I love his prose. His plotting is just about perfect. And most importantly, even when the novel eventually reaches truly Grand Guignol horror, the characters are believable and shockingly normal and likable. Which is, of course, part of the brilliant point of the novel. Read it simply as a thriller that grips like a vice, or embrace the much deeper psychological and theological underpinnings subtly woven throughout. Either way, if you have yet to read this brutal, brilliant work of art, dive in. You may end up a little shellshocked, but you will not be sorry.

A protagonist called Hank, who is clearly bonkers but is treated as a rational man, doesn’t help this story hold water. However, I grew to like his fat, stupid, ugly brother, despite all of his messy eating habits. After the first four murders I flipped through to the end of the book mainly to see if I could add up the body count on both hands or would have to take off my socks. The writing is okay, and the plot is cleverly thought out although, in my opinion, it defies credulity.

I love novels that start off as...SIMPLE...and get progressively more screwed up thanks to characters making bad decisions. I've watched the movie a bunch of times, but only recently read the novel. Holy cow! This ending is totally different from the movie. It's insane. Seriously. If you've never read this book, you gotta just for the ending if anything. I still can't believe it.

In his The New Rhetoric, Chaim Perelman concludes, "The distinction of the different genres of oratory is highly artificial, as the study of a speech shows." He then goes on to cite Marc Antony's "friends, Romans, countrymen" speech in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, noting how it "opens with a funeral eulogy ... and ends by provoking a riot that is clearly political." While Perelman sees this as an example of genre's artifice, I think it better illustrates its flexibility. All but the most obstinate critics note how speeches and poems and narratives naturally clump together in camps. It's interesting, then, when an author decides (like Marc Antony) that his work needs to become the genre-fiction equivalent of a citizen of the world rather than a longtime resident of a single locale. Which is exactly what Scott Smith does with his debut novel, A Simple Plan.

Hank Mitchell has a good life. The first in his family to attend college, he has landed respectable job as head accountant of a small, Ohio feedstore. His undergraduate sweetheart is also expecting their first child. It's a steady, if slightly dull, existence, but certainly better than that of his older brother, Jacob. Perpetually slovenly and unemployed, Jacob spends his days playing with his German shepherd Mary Beth and his nights drinking with his best friend Lou. The only thing that brings the two brothers together is a mutual pledge to visit their parents' graves on the last day of every year. And during the year it all begins, they are driving to do just that when a fox darts in front of Jacob's pickup and Mary Beth leaps out in pursuit. One long walk across snow-covered fields later, they discover the mutt amongst a copse of apple trees -- and a downed plane filled with over $4 million in cash. They hastily hatch a plan to keep the money until summer and burn it if anyone comes looking. Simple, right? But even the simplest plans can go so easily awry.

Current writing mores almost demand a whiz-bang intro, but Smith doesn't take that tack. Plan begins in literary mode, most of the action staying firmly between Hank's ears. From there it moves in a slow swell, gradually introducing characters, delineating their personalities and motivations, stringing out the moral deficiencies that will strangle them later. Only once the stage is fully set does it transmute into a crime-thriller. Alliances coalesce, then shatter. Laws get broken in the heat of the moment, then transgressed again with cold-hearted foresight. When attempted blackmail erupts into charnel-house slaughter, you suddenly see Smith's goal. It's taken so very little for these salt-of-the-earth people to move into the depths of depravity. "You're just a nice, sweet, normal guy," Hank's wife tells him. "No one would ever believe that you'd be capable of doing what you've done." How much would it require for us to follow them? In the end, Plan is the best sort of horror novel, a devastating examination of the darkness in every heart.

Impressive first book from Scott Smith. What would you do? You happen upon a small plane which crashed long ago with stacks of money inside. No one knew the plane was even there, let alone the money inside its fuselage. More money than you could ever dream of...all for the taking. Maybe not take all of it. Yeah, who would notice if some of it was taken? That’s the plan. It all seemed so simple.

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.

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.

A SIMPLE PLAN is an exceptionally well written suspense novel. I read hundreds of thrillers a year on average, and I found the writing in this book to be very impressive. It's hard to believe that this was Scott Smith's first book, and that he wrote it in his mid-twenties. In my opinion, he writes better prose than many older, more experienced authors.

That being said, this novel isn't perfect. A SIMPLE PLAN is essentially a morality tale, and the reader knows in advance it will not end happily for the protagonist. You can pretty much predict how it ends.

Further, the main character becomes less and less likable as the book progresses, which can make for a difficult read. My major problem with the book is the sheer stupidity of the main character; he consistently makes decisions that make absolutely no sense. The irrational nature of his behavior made the storyline of this novel somewhat difficult for me to swallow. I would have liked this novel more if his actions had been more believable.

That being said, I really enjoyed this book despite its flaws. I found it difficult to put down, and it kept me up late at night. If you're looking for a good suspense read, and can put up with some unlikely plot twists, this novel is a great choice.

If you liked this book, I'm guessing you'll also like THE RUINS by the same author.

[Warning: Plot spoiler.]

For a debut novel, Smith demonstrated high talent. His book can be thought of as a reworking of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", showing how greed can lead an otherwise innocent man to murder. There are nice twists throughout the plot, that keep it largely unpredictable.

The only drawback was the ending. The hero [I guess I can call him that] discovers that the millions of dollars, instantiated as hundred dollar bills, have several thousand of these bills marked. That is, their serial numbers were recorded by the FBI. The problem is that if he and his wife try to spend any sizeable quantity of the bills, some will invariably be those marked ones. So they burn [!!] all the money.

Implausible. The hero is an accountant. He should have deduced the following. If they took the money to Las Vegas or Reno, hundred dollar bills are in heavy circulation, due to the casinos. They can use those to buy chips, gamble a little for verisimilitude, and then cash in the remaining chips. Of course, they can't do this all at once. It requires discipline. For safety, if they take 10 years, say, then they can "clean" over $400 000 a year. By making multiple trips to those towns, and going to several casinos in each.

This differs from the morality tale-type ending of the book. But perhaps in its own way, it would have been a more uplifting and plausible conclusion.

Hank and Jacob are brothers; somewhat estranged, yes, but bound by blood and an oath they made to visit their father's grave every New Years Eve. One day, on the way to the cemetary (accompanied by Jacob's friend Lou), the brothers accidently stumble upon a crashed plane hidden by the forest and snow. Inside the plane is a dead pilot and a bag; inside the bag is slightly over 4 million dollars.

In order to keep the money, they must wait to make sure no one else is looking for it. A simple plan indeed...until you factor in human error. As things slowly begin to spiral out of control, Hank finds himself spiraling down a corridor from which there is no escape, and which may lead to imprisonment...or death...

Scott Smith's "A Simple Plan" is simply a terrific thriller. Dark, humorous, captivating, it chronicles the story of an ordinary man caught in an extraordinary trap, and the measures he will go to ensure his own survival. With a pace that will leave you on the edge of your seat, and characters that beat with a pulse all their own, "A Simple Plan" is one of the best thrillers out there. If you are a fan of the genre, don't you dare miss this one.

I really liked this book until the end. This book is among the most literary contemporary fiction I've ever read; the author knows what he's doing when it comes to imagery and artistry with the English language, despite the juxtaposition of his rural redneck setting and milieu. In this story, two brothers and one friend discover four million dollars in a crashed airplane -- and their combined lives "hit the fan" with the impact of the discovery on their lives and its resulting temptations.
Most fascinating in this story is the apparently soulless main character. Without giving anything away, he illustrates flawlessly the human mind's ability to disassociate itself from its behavior... after the thrall of the protagonist, I find myself most fascinated by his wife, Sarah, the supposedly honorable recent mother (and dubious personification of all things good and nurturing?) who becomes a voice of justification and dismissal.
The rest of the characters are predictable but for the protagonist's take on them; in a way, the supporting characters provide the main character with a mirror reflecting his own skewed perspective and point of view. The reflection is frightening and at the same time enthralling... kind of the way an accident is on the street. You can't help but look, though you know you will look away.
This isn't a book for the faint-hearted, but it's a great book for fans of the macabre... and yes, I liked it until the end. The ending didn't hold up the momentum and fascination of the rest of the story. If I had my druthers, I'd tell the author how it SHOULD have ended... but c'est la vie.

Is there a human instinct more deplorable than greed? After reading A SIMPLE PLAN, you'd be hard pressed to argue.
A SIMPLE PLAN is about ordinary people realizing that they can do extrordinary things. Extrordinarily BAD things. Brothers Hank and Jacob, along with drinking buddy Lou, stumble upon a stash of millions of dollars. They decide to wait to see if the money is being looked for, and while they wait, the depths that human beings can succumb to are slowly revealed.
As in the best works of Jim Thompson, A SIMPLE PLAN follows normal people in deplorable circumstances. Author Scott Smith draws the noose around the characters' necks tighter and tighter, with each consectutive move drawing them in deeper.
The great thing about Smith's plot is that it is logical. Each step leads from the previous one, with no deus ex machina used to save the characters from their own personal hell. They have no choice but to continue along the path they've chosen.
Like THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, A SIMPLE PLAN is a terrific treatise on the consequences of the basest of human emotions. It should be required reading for anyone who is interested in the human condition.

3 guys come across a crashed plane that contains a dead pilot and a sack containing millions of dollars. Their simple plan is to keep the money hidden away until it's "safe" to split up and start spending it themselves. Overall what happens from that point is a fun to read, albeit on the dark side, surprise filled plot with an ending that you'll either love or scratch your head about. Only way you'll know is to read it for yourself. I'd say go for it.

Stephen King encourages one to "Read This Book", so I followed his advice, assuring myself that the man knows a good work of fiction when he reads one -- and, naturally, his advice proved beneficial. To be honest, I have never read an average-length novel in the time-span of two days (6/16-17), but I did with this one, while traveling with my family during our yearly summer vacation via the highways and biways of the mid-west (Indiana to Nebraska and back). I'd heard of the movie "A Simple Plan", so when I stumbled across a copy of the book at a Dollar General store in NE, I decided to get it (for a measly one dollar) -- and I was hooked from page one. For me at least, the return trip home flew by because I was utterly enthralled by the novel. But I was a bit startled to discover that the book is nearly ten years old (having been published initially in 1993). Nevertheless, I was very impressed with it, to say the least. Appropriately, it was sort of Stephen King-ish, but Scott Smith definitely presents his own voice/style. However, I'm giving it four stars out of five because no author's books are 100% perfect (not even Stephen's -- gasp!). But first-time novels, such as Smith's, don't come much better than this.

A Simple Plan is a very frustrating book. The characterizations are so strong and the writing establishes such tension, that when the characters make inane choices, we're extremely disappointed.
As you probably know from the synopsis, this book revolves around Hank Mitchell, his brother Jacob, and his brother's friend Lou, who discover a plane with 4 million dollars in cash inside. The plot then revolves around Hank's decision to hold on to the money while hiding the fact that he has any knowledge of the money or the plane. From the efforts to conceal his knowledge, murder and deceit follow.
The efforts to conceal the plane and the money are ridiculous and illogical, partcularly a plan devised by Hank's wife Sarah midway through the book. Like a Hollywood movie, the characters eschew the obvious course of action for a bizarre choice, and that bizarre choice inevitably leads to their downfall.

This is especially frustrating because the characters are well written and the tense mood is maintained throughout the book. Scott Smith keeps us turning pages, even as we're throwing up our arms in dismay at yet another stupid decision. We like Hank, and more importantly, we understand him. We sympathize with his good intentions throughout his slow slide into the most horrible behavior. Furthermore, the subtext of how basically good people can descend into evil while rationalizing the entire way is thoughtful and exceptionally realized. If only Hank's actions were as simple as the title implies, this could have been a great book. As it is, it's good points and its bad ones balance out into a compelling, yet ultimately unsatisfying read.

'A Simple Plan' makes you rethink the proverbial question what would you do if you found a duffle bag full of money? The young men in this novel thought after they found the windfall had it all figured out. Hide it. Wait for the thaw in late spring if there is any mention of money on the plane, burn it or the option all involved are hoping for; divide it equally if no one comes forward after the plane is inevitably discovered. Well, then like a Greek Tragedy the chorus sings out warnings that this is not such a good idea. Even the wife of one of the main characters says no at first and then is encouraging the plan and ultimately the persons involved fall to hubris and greed; becoming in essence monsters, trying to justify their actions as necessary and normal 'in this situation'. Oh, How the mighty do fall. How many people must die in the name of greed? Even 'good' people down on their luck are corrupted by the evils of money.

The story while farfetched stands as a warning of the power money has over our lives, because we gave it that power. Would it be worth nearly killing someone over then finishing them off, then killing witnesses or other people in connection to the previous murders and killing in self defense, murders in the act of covering up another crime; where does it all end?

I have not seen the movie, in fact until I started this review was not aware there was a movie.

Though it is not important I feel I must ask, does the author know Stephen King? Rarely does King give an author not one, but two great similar reviews in a row.

This book is a wonderful example of pure storytelling and many of the reviews I have read about it are wonderful examples of over-analysis by those more literarily gifted than the rest of us. Give me a break, just because the guy (Scott Smith) went to Dartmouth doesn't mean you should judge his novel as a dissertation on ethics in modern America.
This book is astounding for a first novel. To read it is to put yourself under the microscope. What would you do? How would you do it? How far would you go before you considered yourself over the line? If you allow these to be your lines of thought instead of how tightly paced the last third of the novel is, or whether or not the believability of a certain character's motivation holds up to what you think is a reasonable suspension of disbelief, you will more thoroughly enjoy it.
If you are more fond of pondering the human condition than diagraming sentences you will find this book a fascinating adventure. Or if you are one who relives how thrilling the ride was rather than how long you waited in line, you will be glad you bought this book. Put your Masters Degree on the top shelf of the closet where it will invariably end up one day anyway, and put your most comfortable sweat suit on and dig in for a revealing adventure into who you are and how you might act if you were to find a particular plane on a particluar day in a particular orchard in the state of Ohio.

"A Simple Plan" starts with a question reminiscent of an ethics test or a parlor game: what would you do if you found a lot of money? The story provides one possible answer.
Would we do the same thing as Hank Mitchell, the narrator? After stumbling upon $4.5 million while in the woods with his brother and the brother's friend, Hank concocts a "simple plan" which will enable the three of them to keep the money. If things go as planned, all the trio will have to do is wait a few months, telling no one in the meantime about the money. Of course, the plan falls apart, people end up dead, and the money becomes worthless.
The premise of Smith's book rests upon the reader buying into the idea that he or she would do the same thing. But I don't buy it. From beginning to end, I found myself questioning every action of the characters. They all seemed so pointless, and the more mired the Mitchells became in this impossible situation, the less I sympathized. By the end, the Mitchells seemed not regular people trapped in an inevitable situation, but inhuman, selfish monsters.
To Smith's credit, he sure can tell a story and keep those pages turning. The story was indeed engrossing, just not one I could believe.

I've just finished reading this book and am almost breathless; it's that scary. This is the story of Hank, an ordinary guy who finds a fortune in a crashed plane. His first inclination is to turn the money in, but he's persuaded not to. One thing leads to another, and before he knows it, he has murdered someone to protect his secret. This is just the first in a series of blood-curdling events that are so intense and real that you won't be able to put the book down.

Hank narrates the story in a very calm, rational, and guiltless manner. Each act is, to him, completly necessary and therefore, blameless. The violence comes quickly and, just when you think it can't get any bloodier, it does. The one constant thread is that Hank still considers himself to be a regular guy, despite having committed unspeakable acts. His conscience is clear and life can go on with very few regrets.

The movie version isn't as graphically violent (it couldn't be!) or terrifying (too bad!). I recommend this book to fans of suspense, mystery, and crime. It is a thrilling story!

A simple tale of something that sounds too good to be true turning out to be exactly that. I was on the fence about whether to give this 4 or 5 stars b/c I heard so much praise I was expecting to be blown away. In the end, the story is strong enough to warrant 5 stars. Definitely recommended.

SPOILERS

Apparently, writer Scott Smith became so disgusted with his own first published work (1993's "A SIMPLE PLAN"), that he had a serious case of writer's block and went on to write his second books only in... 2003!! Maybe that, or he simply made an indecent amount money with the royalties form this book and the movie deal...

The book is despicable. Why? Is it badly written? I did not think so. The trouble is not about normal people doing evil things. The trouble is doing A LOT OF EVIL THINGS IN AN UNBELIEVABLE SHORT PERIOD OF TIME AND FEELING NO REMORSE AT ALL! And this includes killing a dog for no reason at all!!

Also, this book could have been called: "THE CRAZY IDEAS FORM MY GREEDY WIFE". Almost all trouble the Mitchell couple had was caused by Sarah's stupid ideas... Going back to the plane??? Making Hank record a DRUNK Lou and showing the tape at the same night?? The list goes on and on...

This is a book that makes clear right from the start that the characters were despicable. Ok, I can live with that, as long as I know that the ending of the history reserves a terrible place for them. But it did not.

Aargh....

An innocent question by one of the main characters, "Is that a plane?" gets this book off and running. "A Simple Plan" is a riveting tale about three ordinary but different men who find a boatload of cash in a wrecked plane and the chaos that ensues following their discovery. It's a story about tested morals, fate, risks, taking sides, paranoia and, most scary of all, the raging greed that money can produce in even the most ordinary of people. Though called "A Simple Plan," the ugly occurrences in Scott B. Smith's novel are anything but straightforward and easy.

As in real life, the twists of fate and what-ifs splattered throughout this story make even the smallest events substantial. At the most basic level, the wrecked plane wouldn't have even been discovered by the three men had a fox not darted out in front of the truck they were traveling in on a wintry Ohio road. From there, numerous other "fateful" events pile up, justifying certain actions in the minds of a few of the characters. But as things progress, fate takes a backseat to avarice, bloodshed and all-out suspicions. Though the plot is stellar, what keeps me coming back to this book are the characters: The narrator, Hank, an educated accountant and family man whose life spirals downward with every choice he decides upon; his take-charge wife, Sarah, whose conniving, sometimes foolish, suggestions often make matters much more harrowing; Hank's brother, Jacob, a high school dropout and loner who comes across as the sympathetic one in the book; and Lou, the only friend of Jacob, whose rough-around-the-edges personality causes nothing but worry to Hank and Sarah.

Perhaps because he's the narrator, Hank may be the most interesting study in personality. Though "normal" by society's standards, Hank's subtle quirks, rampant deceit, shyness and aloofness may slightly help explain some of his dastardly deeds. Capable of bludgeoning another human being, Hank inexplicably gets queasy feeling his unborn child kick in his wife's stomach; he can't stand watching her nurse the baby; and he feels like he's "eavesdropping" on her when she's on the phone and they're in the same room. Halfway through the story, Hank realizes that he and his wife live an insular, solitary existence with hardly any friends. Though none of these characteristics are necessarily indicative of a murderer, as time goes on it's evident that Hank and Sarah are selfish, evil people despite their tendency to rationalize all their actions in the name of a fortune that will provide an easy life ahead. In the capable hands of Smith, the bad karma that drops upon the couple in the end doesn't feel contrived.

Ironically, amid all the backstabbing that goes on, brothers Hank and Jacob, previously distant from one another, become much closer. Their reflective conversations and eventual reconnecting are one touching aspect to the book. Smith's unembellished dialogue and writing style, in fact, give "A Simple Plan" an authentic feel to match the snowy Midwestern setting that always seems to be filled with foreboding crows and a deadened sense of misery. Human interaction is acutely captured by the author, as the cold, bleak barrenness of Ohio suburbia stands in marked contrast to the anxiety-filled emotions and actions of all the characters involved. If nothing else, "A Simple Plan" teaches two cliched but valuable lessons: Money isn't everything, and crime doesn't pay.

This is a brilliant novel; uncompromising, disturbing, and extraordinarily well written. That said: there is no doubt that some readers are not going to like this novel. It's dark and depressing and is filled with unlikeable characters.

The plot: Three men stumble upon a small plane crashed in a remote orchard on New Year's Eve. Inside they find a dead pilot and over $4 million. They devise a simple plan. They will hold onto the money until after the plane is discovered. Once the plane is found they will wait until its safe, and then split up the cash. If the authorities get too close, they`ll burn the money. Simple. But it doesn't take long for the plan to spiral out of control when distrust and greed lead to violence.

The first person narrative is chilling. Hank Mitchell, a seemingly normal man, rationalizes each act of violence, convincing himself again and again that he had no choice. Each horrifying step he takes, makes the next easier, until finally he is lost.

This is a powerful novel about the destructive nature of greed and how the corruption of seemingly normal people rarely happens all at once, but through a series of small compromises and rationalizations. This is crime fiction; elevated.

A Simple Plan is one of the best crime novels I've read, but it won't appeal to everyone. If you can live without a happy ending and you don't mind a protagonist who has completely lost his moral compass, you'll enjoy A Simple Plan. This is an exceptionally good (but very dark) novel.

(SPOILER ALERT) I read this book while I was recovering from some surgery. First, the positives: It passed the time and the writing was O.K, not great, but O.K. The negatives are as follows: What a terrible story. Main character goes from family man to serial killer. Just keeps killing until the book ends. He finally gets away with it all and goes on to live his life.

I equate this book to Chinese Food. Good premise but completely unsatisfying.

I do not recommend it at all.

I can't imagine a more powerful warning regarding the destructive power of greed. Many of us have probably dreamed of finding a large amount of money that leaves no clue of who it might have belonged to. We fantasize about suddenly becoming financially independent and what we could do with all that money. Well, be careful what you wish for. Given the innate greed and grabbiness of the human heart, sudden riches often has a less than satisfactory result in human lives. You will become increasingly tense as you read this book and try not to get your heart set on a happily ever after ending. You will find it hard to set the book down so try to read it over a weekend when you have lots of spare time.

Scott Smith has written a twisted novel that serves as a warning to readers about the slippery slope of crime. What starts as "A Simple Plan" to retain found money turns into a very suspenseful psychodrama. The author aptly describes the seductive pull of big money, and the ever increasing repercussions of greed. His characters ring true until near the ending, as do their relationships. One reader caveat would be to be prepared for lots of people to die, as do in this first book from Scott Smith, and in his newest (see my review for The Ruins). By the end, I'd had enough death, and questioned if the author took it too far. But overall, this is a very interesting first novel and a gripping tale of a seemingly simple family man who, as Dr. Phil would say, digs himself a hole, then can't put down the shovel.

I can not believe the positive reviews. Read it again and this time write in a notepad all the loose ends that don't get tied up.
Then read again the killings at Lou's house. Five people involved - four murdered, one man left standing - Hank - who told the sheriff he had never ever fired a gun before. Stupid error on the author's part. Come on people. Lou and Jake killed each other? I noticed they found that black hole in the plot and corrected it in the movie. I call this the little book that wanted to be.
Where in the hell was the editor?!

Anonymous

This book was written simply so it read easily. The characters and actions were so surface and unbelievable that all I could think was the author did little research into any kind of police or detective investigation. It was not written with any in depth science or detail. A very shallow and unbelievable experience. I would not recommend it except if you were really bored on vacation.

Overall this book is a great read. The unexpected twists and turns kept me reading anxiously. It gave me a dark and overcast feeling the entire time I read it, which is obviously the sign of a good writer. Strangely enough I found this book after reading The Ruins, and I must say this is much better. The only reason I couldn't give it a full 5 star rating is that there was overall an element of unrealistic character development. The baser side of mankind was truly explored, but I cannot see how a man who has no history of violence suddenly becomes a robotic killer and his wife just goes along with it like it is a part of his job. The lack of compassion and total self preservation is something I hope isn't common just because money is the end result. BUT, don't let that stop you from reading this book. It is worth the few hours invested.

What a strange little story. Like others posters, I found myself comparing it to Macbeth and Fargo, and, not having seen the movie version, kept seeing William Macy in the title role of a Coen Brothers production....this would be great. I don't think it quite measures up to a good King novel, but its definitely one you can't put down. And its good for 'what would you do if...' party chat. Read it. It won't take much of your time, and it will get you to wondering.

An incredible, troublesome tale that has had me in its grips for days. Why days? Because there were times I put this book down and had to screw up my courage to continue. The plot is on a sine wave of dread and relief, worry and calm, and all of it grabbing your inner self, asking you if these acts are ones you're capable of mimicking. Original, quietly relentless, a tale that I will not forget. Read this, the world will fall away as you explore this dark and all too plausible landscape.

A novel of suspense I enjoyed tremendously. Far superior to any novel by James Patterson, John Grisham or Tami Hoag. The tagline "Sometimes Good People Do Bad Things" sums up the essence of the story pretty well. The characters are thrown into situations where they are 'forced' to do awful things to save their hide. Things later got very much out of hand for the main character (Hank Mitchell) to handle when he has to commit one crime after another in order to cover up his previous crime. But at the end of it all, he still believes he's a good man at heart. That he's still very much humane. He's like the average working man you see on the streets, with a wife and child, capable of feeling love, sadness, fear.. but also of greed which drive him to commit those crimes.
What a well written book! When is Scott Smith going to publish his next book? I can't wait!

I really enjoyed the movie, the book however, not so much. Huge let down, I was into it until the mass shooting at Lou's and the whole thing unraveled. As others have stated the plot veers wildly off course and is utterly unbelievable and just makes no sense, especially the ending at the convenance store. Miraculously they somehow managed to cover their tracks in 9 murders in a 5 month time span?! Most incompetent police and FBI work ever in a work of fiction. I can't believe Stephen King gave this book so much praise?

The Washington Post originally reviewed this book by saying, "It is remarkable to read such a terrifying work expressed in such a seductively reasonable voice."

After reading this book, I'd say that that reviewer was right on target, with one exception. I'd change "remarkable" to "remarkable and a bit unnerving". While reading this book, it is easy to forget how horrifically dark the story line is, until you stop reading long enough to think about it. Then it hit's you like a brick. But then you pick the book up and continure reading, because you can't wait to discover what unspeakable thing occurs next in the lives of this perfectly "normal" family.

This is a good book. Usually I'm sad when I finish a good book, because when the book is finished I immediately miss the fact that I am no longer deeply involved in the story. But when I finished this book, I wasn't sad. I was relieved to have been set free. That's actually to Scott's credit. He's a remarkably skilled writer.