Customer Reviews
The relentless power of an avalanch! - By: SnapWriter, 01 Jul 2008 
Having read RUINS--with it's marvellous prose & none-stop pace--I moved next to A SIMPLE PLAN. Though it was slow to start, it was worth the investment. As every creative writing teacher will tell you, story = character + confrontation. Hank, the main character, is given a very hard time by Scott Smith; which is precisly what you want. There is no fatin this novel. The suspense is a constant, each new obstacle accompanied by something worse. Everything flows organically, each chapter sliced into manageable scenes. Pleanty of surprises from left-field that will leave you breathless. Invest your timein this novel. But what the movie is like, I can't say.
A Superb Thriller - By: R. Mullaney, 14 May 2008 Accountant Hank Mitchell discovers a small crashed plane buriedin the snow whilst outin the Ohio woods with his brother & a friend. The pilot is dead & the only luggage is a duffel bag containing $4.8 million. Convincing themselves that the money is illegal drug money & therefore untraceable they decide to keep it. If no-one comes lookingin the next six months they will divide it three ways & disappear. Nothing can go wrong if everyone keeps quiet & waits patiently. A simple plan.
Unfortunately things are never as simple as they appear & pretty soon Hank's life begins to unravel. You can probably guess what happens. Someone tells someone else, people become greedy & before long Hank is forced to murder someone to keep the money a secret. Then once he has stepped over that line it gets easier to murder again every time his dream of being a millionaire is threatened.
Scott Smith portrays Hank as a very normal family man, a good guy that we can all relate to. He has a pregnant wife & a normal job & lives a decent, honest life. We can forgive him his dishonesty because he is only thinking of giving his unborn daughter a better life & no-one will miss the money. As a series of events forces Hanks hand over & over again, he steps further across the Abyss, desperately trying to protect the new life he has set his heart on. Hank's brother Jacob is a dim witted man-child who is possibly the only innocentin the tale. Someone who doesn't truly understand the enormity of his actions & cannot cope with the responsibility as things spiral out of control. Then there is Lou. Jacob's drunken loser pal who throws a spannerin the works because of his gambling addiction & stupidity. Smith tightens the screws expertly & the tension becomes unbearable as Hank becomes the puppet of his manipulative wife whose cool cunning leads him to some extremely uncomfortable action. It becomes unputdownable reading as we wonder if we would be capable of Hanks actions for millions of dollars.
Great story, well written! - By: Mr. Tony Griffiths, 13 May 2008 Saw this film version about 5 yrs ago, & stumbled on this book during a car-boot sale.
What a superb book. Great storyline, well written, fast paced, & most important of all, believeable?
Put yourselfin the same situation..... 4 million dollars between 3 of you, one dead pilotin a crashed plane. What you gonna do? Hand the money in? Kill your brother & his friend? Split the money & run?
Read it.............. great book.
A Moral Thriller? - By: J. Bowen, 29 Apr 2008 
"A Simple Plan" is a book by Scott Smith. It's about three friends (two rednecks & one who's slightly better educated) who accidentally stumble across $4.2 millionin the back of a crashed plane, & decide to split it if no one goes looking for it. Once we learn about their plan, we watch the friendships disintegrate through the remainder of the book as the thieves argue over the money they've found.
It's a depressing book that I didn't particularly like. I don't like overly positive books or stories that have overly pat endings, & this book is pat, onlyin a negative direction. No one wins, & that depressed the hell out of me because I want people to make progress & no one (I repeat NO ONE) was better off by the end of this book.
A GRIPPING READ - By: Heather Marshall Negahdar, 11 Apr 2007 "Lou & I circled the wreck, neither of us approaching close enough to touch it.. The plane was surprisingly small, no bigger than Jacob's truck, & there was something fragile about it; it seemed far too tiny to support the weight of a manin the air. "
Sit tight, because you arein for a breathtaking ride. Hank, brother Jacob, & friend Lou happen upon a crashed aeroplanein a deserted area of the country partially coveredin snow. Investigating further they find the pilot who is dead, & a large carrier bag loaded with over four million dollars, just sittingin the plane with the dead pilot.
They are excited but unsure as to what they should do. Should they report it, or just take it away from the plane & split it? Having decided on the latter they decide that Hank will hold the money at home until a safe time has passed, & then they will divide it up. While waiting on time to pass, the personalities of these three guys changein enormous ways. They become anxious & agitated waiting the time out, as each personality does a downward spiral. They sweat, their imaginations run wild, & all they can think about is the pleasures that would be derived from this windfall. There is mayhem & murder as this plot unfoldsin this wonderfully gripping novel. The love of money is certainly the root of all evil, & all that goes along with it.
I highly recommend this book. It was worth my time & money.
Reviewed by Heather Marshall Negahdar (SUGAR-CANE 27/04/07)
