A Simple Plan — A Novel book cover by Scott Smith
Amazon customers: 4.2 out of 5 · 1,410 ratings

A Simple Plan

Adult • Mystery
A Novel
Three friends find a plane wreck Four million dollars in cash discovered Secrecy strains their relationships Guilt magnifies every lie Ordinary lives unravel under pressure

Two brothers and their friend stumble upon the wreckage of a plane. The pilot is dead and a duffle bag contains four million dollars in cash. Determined to keep the windfall, the three ordinary men agree on a simple plan to conceal, divide, and quietly spend the money.

Their decision forces them into secrecy and mutual dependence, drawing each into compromises that test loyalty and morality. They try to keep up work and family obligations while concealing the cash, but guilt and suspicion magnify every lie. Small deceptions pile into larger, irreversible choices that threaten to unravel their ordinary lives under the weight of temptation and fear.

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Edition information

Book details

Publisher
Vintage
Publication date
October 24, 2006
Print length
416 pages
Language
English
ISBN
9780307279958

Mystery

Reader guide

What to Know Before Reading A Simple Plan

A gripping psychological thriller that explores how greed can corrupt ordinary people. The story follows Hank Mitchell, an accountant living a modest life in a small town, along with his unemployed brother Jacob and Jacob’s friend Lou. While out in the snowy woods, the trio unexpectedly discovers a small, crashed airplane hidden in the forest. Inside the cockpit, alongside the body of a deceased pilot, they find a duffel bag containing $4.4 million in cash.

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G-NRIS™ story intelligence

Why readers connect with A Simple Plan

A concise view of the book’s strongest literary signals and the reading interests shared by people connected to it on bks.social.

Story profile

G-NRIS™ identifies A Simple Plan primarily as Thriller, Crime, and Suspense. Its strongest themes include Morality and Ethics, Greed and Temptation, Loyalty and Betrayal, and Consequences of Choices. Prominent narrative patterns include Found Money, Ordinary People in Extraordinary Circumstances, Moral Dilemma, and Secrets and Lies.

Reader connection

Readers connected to this book most often reflect Psychological Moral Explorer reader archetypes. Their strongest shared genre interests include Dark Fantasy, Thriller, Mystery, and Noir. They are commonly drawn to themes such as plot twists, secrets, toxic family dynamics, and enemies to lovers.

About the author

Scott Smith

Scott Smith

Scott Bechtel Smith (born July 13, 1965) is an American author and screenwriter. He has written two novels, A Simple Plan (1993) and The Ruins (2006). Both were adapted into films – A Simple Plan (1998) and The Ruins (2008), respectively – based on Smith's own screenplays. He also wrote the screenplays for the films Siberia (2018) and The Burnt Orange Heresy (2019). His screenplay for A Simple Plan earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

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