A Simple Plan by Scott Smith (Epub)

Description

“Spectacular. . . . Ten shades blacker and several corpses grimmer than the novels of John Grisham. . . . Do yourself a favor. Read this book.” —Entertainment Weekly

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. In order to hide, keep, and share the fortune, these ordinary men all agree to a simple plan.

User’s Reviews

Review “Read this book. It is better than any suspense novel since The Silence of the Lambs.” —Stephen King“Spectacular. . . . Ten shades blacker and several corpses grimmer than the novels of John Grisham. . . . Do yourself a favor. Read this book.” —Entertainment Weekly“Beautifully controlled and disturbing. . . . Works a devastating variation on the idea of the banality of evil.” —The New York Times Book Review“Like watching a train wreck. There is nothing to be done, but it is impossible to turn away.” —Chicago Tribune“A marvel. . . . The story-twists keep you turning the pages and guessing what’s coming next. With cool precision, Smith outlines the ever-widening spiral of distrust and violence.” — The Boston Globe“A work of deceptive simplicity and singular power. . . . To describe the fascinating parade of thoughts and deeds that lead inexorably to the book’s calamitous conclusion would give away too much of the plot.” — The Washington PostFrom the Trade Paperback edition. 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 paperback edition. From the Back Cover Two brothers and a friend find $4 million in the cockpit of a downed plane. The pilot is dead. No one is looking for the money. To keep it, all they have to do is wait. IT ALL SOUNDED SO SIMPLE… –This text refers to the paperback edition. From AudioFile What a first novel! Compelling, absorbing, controversial. Above all frightening. Smith forces us to listen as a youngish, middle class couple who are about to become parents turn themselves into fortune-seeking murders who kill without caring. Smith has produced a towering morality play. The audiobook has been triply blessed. The abridgment is effective and well-produced; the packaging workable. Actor Griffin Dunne caps it off with an excellent reading. F.S.J. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine –This text refers to the paperback edition. From the Publisher Praise for A SIMPLE PLAN: “Spectacular…10 shades blacker and grimmer than the novels of John Grisham…Do yourself a favor. Read this book.” –ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY. A+ rating. “Expertly crafted…will make you feel like an unindicted co-conspirator. To say more about the plot would ruin the pleasure of reading the book for yourself.” –PEOPLE “Read this book. It is better than any suspense novel SINCE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.” –Stephen King NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM PARAMOUNT –This text refers to the paperback 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, VACopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to the paperback edition.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ This book…What would you do if you found 4.4 million dollars?I can tell you I definitely would NOT do what they did in this book. But, that being said, I couldn’t stop reading this. It was tragic, and fascinating. A fast paced thriller so well written I felt in it. A part of it.It’s written in the first person narrative of Hank. A small town guy, with an “honest” face. He’s happily married to a very smart and beautiful woman and they are expecting their first child. Hank, and his brother Jacob along with Jacob’s best friend come across a crashed plane and find 4.4 million dollars. They come up with a “simple plan” to keep the money. This plan becomes anything BUT simple.I could not believe who Hank became, or the things that people will do when pushed, like really pushed, for money. How desperate they can become, how greedy. How obsessed.The selfishness of this book was thought provoking. Seriously. You don’t think YOU could do some of these incredible things. But, how far WOULD you go to save your family? To protect them? To keep them together?The way the writer takes you into the mind of this desperation and greed is infuriating, and fascinating. Hank get’s pushed into situations beyond imagination. And the decisions he makes are life altering.I highly recommend reading this one, and personally after this story, I would NOT keep the money.

⭐ The story was good, and it was well-written, except for the fact that I couldn’t picture the narrator (Hank) or his wife, Sarah, for the life of me. I could picture their house, their baby, everything else but their faces. I didn’t like any of the characters and found myself actually rooting for them to get caught. The only character in this story who has any real intelligence/quick-thinking skills is Sarah, Hank’s mysterious wife.SPOILER ALERT —- SPOILER ALERT——- STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW THE ENDING.——–I don’t see why he felt like he had to burn the money at the end. And their luck just got worse and worse afterward. Sarah was right; they could have just left the country for a vacation and never returned. The US government didn’t have the means or technology to track someone down in the ’90s overseas based solely on bill serial numbers lol it was just a dumb ending, imo.

⭐ This book sticks with you. when a plane full of dead men and millions of dollars crashes deep in the back country woods, a pair of brothers (one trying to achieve the middle class dream and overcome his back wood roots, the other wallowing happily in low-income obscurity) and the hapless brother’s friend steal the cash and swear to keep it hidden away until it can be safely spent. Of course the ne’er do well pair can’t stick to the plan and a murderous series of events leaves many dead. Very well written and meticulously plotted as the spiral of events turns everyone against everyone with a surprise ending that I won’t relate but brings neat closure to the book. My only problem with this is my own set of literary prejudices: I found it hard to like the main character or any of the others. I can live with that if I can revile and respect them, but these three fell short of that. But Scott Smith has a lot of talent and is well worth the read.

⭐ From reading good reviews, I expected an intelligent, intriguing story about a simple plan gone wrong, with clever twists and poignant irony. I found one interesting twist in the whole book and the rest is just frustrating and messy and not convincing at all. The best I can say about this book is that it would have been a good, Tarantino movie if it was a shorter, more poetic, hyperbolic book about mind blinding human greed with ultra tragic and ironic consequences. But this book tries to be serious instead, the narrator is not believable, not very relatable. I kept waiting for some unpredictable turn other than blood and more blood, but after the half into the book, I just focused on finishing it.

⭐ The book recommendation from Stephen King should have been a red flagI gave this 3 stars and not 2 because it was the inspiration for one of my favorite movies. I had hoped to read the book to get even more context and detail to what I found to be an engrossing story and compelling characters. Unfortunately, the book pales to the movie screen play. There is no character development, the story is really flawed and non-sensical (see below) which fortunately the screen play fixed and it is exceedingly dark and violent, unnecessarily so.The characters, so wonderfully brought to life in the movie, are like cardboard cutouts. You don’t know these people, who they are, how they feel, why they are doing what they are doing, even as the main character progresses to increasingly gruesome acts of violence.Basically, if you like every book Stephen King wrote (including the majority of which that are bad), you will love this one. If you are looking for rich characters, a thought provoking narrative and a compelling ending, chances are you may be wasting your time with this book. I know I did.[SPOILER ALERT]In the movie, there is a character arc where the main character progresses, or perhaps spirals to a point where, through happenstance, bad decisions, impulse, greed or a combination of all of the above, he confronts the fact that he *may* have become evil, from his misdeeds. This is still largely ambiguous as he retains emotion, sympathy, guilt etc. In the book, the main character is a stone-cold, emotionless sociopath, right *from the beginning*, who shotguns his own brother, barely without a thought, in the process of cold-bloodedly murdering an innocent neighbor in a very sadistic way (forcing him to strip first and beating him). Later in the book he murders another two innocent people in a convenience store with a machete. Really?Don’t you think the odds of having 1 of 10, $100 bills get traced back to his wife just based on camera footage in a store (assuming they even flagged the bill) would have been less than that of being caught in a store brandishing a machete (and risking having to use it – which he did, twice)? Don’t you think the clerk will call the cops, run out to see your plates, shoot you, etc? It is beyond non-sensical to just plain stupid.

⭐ NO SPOILERS HERE…….I saw the movie several years back, enjoyed it, and decided to give the book a try. The price is right, and it read on Kindle with only one typo I could spot.I am surprised at the naiveté of many of the 1 star reviewers for each product. Here’s why:A quick look at the book or movie A Simple Plan makes it clear this isn’t a happy story. It’s obviously a tragedy, so why put it down for not being cheery?Reviewers are bewailing the actions of the main characters, saying “Real people don’t act that way,” or “No one is that stupid.” I disagree. Real people act in ways that can be impossible to predict. The first murder in the story involves an impulsive attack and an equally impulsive effort to cover it up and to protect himself and another. The essence of this story is a cascade into tragedy. One action leads to another, meant to cover the previous one up, and so on. If you can believe the opening act, you can believe it all went downhill from there.It’s not for nothing that people say, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Otherwise good people will lie and cheat over money, even a small amount. I had a guy lie about a car accident he caused (he hit me), because he didn’t want to pay damages and higher premiums. My insurance company was able to prove he was lying. Our upstanding neighbor told my dad to lie to his insurance company so they’d pay to have 40+ trees removed that came down in a storm. He said to damage our own roof so they’d pay for everything. My ex took a whole bunch of valuable stuff from a friend’s apartment after his suicide. The ex’s friend took stuff, plus the dead guy’s van. My coworker and his wife have found a way to cheat on grocery coupons. People also gamble. A lot. Cash is a big draw. It’s not a stretch to believe that someone could, on the spur of the moment, kill others over 4 million dollars, and then continue to do so to keep from getting caught.No one’s that stupid? LOL Of course they are! Google “stupid criminals.” Pick up a true crime book or check the news anywhere. You’ll find an untold number of cases where people are dumb enough to think they can get away with a crime. How about druggies who call the cops to report a robbery – of their drugs? The guy whose skeleton was found years after death in a chimney – he was trying to break into the house. bank robbers who leave behind a note – with their name on it?So, what’s the point I said they missed? That people are capable of who knows what when large amounts of money are at stake. The characters came up with one “simple plan” which, due to mistrust and greed, devolved into another and yet another “simple plan.” This story illustrated just how fast relationships can break down over greed.My only problem with the book was the last violent scene. The magnitude of the crime, the setting, and the manner of death all seemed out of sync with the rest of the narrative. I imagine that’s why this scene wasn’t in the movie. Overall, though, a gripping page turner.

⭐ I bought the book because I finally got around to seeing the 1998 movie with Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, and Bridget Fonda.Compared to the movie, the book feels kind of drawn out. It’s also darker and more violent. The movie’s definitely a much tighter story and the ending feels like a better fit to the story. Regardless, Smith’s a very good writer and the book and the movie were both worth my entertainment dollars.Recommended.

⭐ Reading Scott Smith’s “A Simple Plan” is like being on a train with no brakes. What starts out as a simple plan made by Hank, his brother Jacob and Jacob’s best friend, Lou, turns into a complicated plot that leads to disaster as the conspiracy involves more and more people and more crime than their small town in Ohio has ever seen. The characters’ behavior is shockingly unbelievable at times because these “nice, ordinary guys” had never been in trouble. That was before they stumbled upon the wreckage of a small single-engine plane and a duffel bag behind the dead pilot that contained $4.4 million.The actions of the three men are so surprising because they’re “normal guys.” Hank is an accountant at a feed store, married with a new little daughter, and although his brother is fairly poor and not ambitious, he had never been in trouble. Lou drank a little too much, but he had a home and a girlfriend, but Hank had trouble trusting his brother and Lou. The three stood around the plane trying to decide what to do, whether to turn in the money and report the plane, put the money back in the plane and say nothing, or keep the money. It was just a simple plan that Hank came up with. But things didn’t go simply and as one disastrous act leads to another it becomes a complex story with actions by these three men that are hardly believable in the context of the story.”A Simple Plan” is about what happens to people when greed, selfishness and jealousy take over and how people rationalize their greed with words and thoughts that disguise it and make it into something that seems acceptable to them. They even rationalize terrible acts of violence as being necessary for the good of someone else when that altruistic thought is still a crime. These characters seem very real and the reader learns a lot about them over the course of the 416 pages that just fly by. Scott Smith put the story together so that there isn’t a single loose end left untied and the story flows at such a good pace that reading it is like watching it all play out in front of your eyes without skipping a beat. This is an excellent book and a wonderful debut novel (1993) of suspense that I really loved and enjoyed. It took a lot of creativity, thought and talent to come up with this plot.The book is very dark in mood as is Scott Smith’s other frightening book, The Ruins .He knows how to set the mood, introduce his characters and pace the book just right, and the writing is excellent.Highly recommended for suspense/mystery/thriller readers.

⭐ A Simple Plan is simply one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. It’s got great pacing, in-depth characters and a good theme. This book was so good it’s worth analyzing it in detail:Plot Structure: The plot was constructed very well with suspense building through-out the book. It built up logically and gradually, with each step plausible from the last.Characterization: The first-person narrative was perfect for getting into Hank’s head and learning his inner motivations and rationalizations. Hank was also a very honest narrator, which I always like. The characters of Sarah and Jacob were also well developed through their actions and conversations. None of the characters were perfect, but they were sympathetic to me because of their honesty.Writing Voice: Scott Smith gives just the right amount of detail to make a scene come alive but not so much that it slows it down. He also has a nice mix of dialog and introspection which draws the reader into the conversation.Concept: What if a small-town accountant found four million dollars in an undiscovered plane crash? This is a nice concept which everyone can identify with and it’s easy for the reader to put himself in the protagonist’s situation. Hank’s initial reaction to turn in the money sets up a beautifully executed transformation to cold-hearted killer.Theme: The theme is that self esteem for being a good person is more important than money in the pursuit of happiness. The book also demonstrated nicely the hazards in rationalizing away immoral actions.Scene Construction: Each scene had a purpose, either moving the plot along or developing the characters of Hank, Jacob or Sarah. I never found the scenes slow in starting or dragging on too long.A Simple Plan shows how enjoyable fiction can be when all parts of a novel are executed well.

⭐ This book was full of surprises! A very “simple” plan that went totally awry. Very clever writing and twisted story telling. My husband and I both loved and laughed through this book. A must read I think.

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