Number 7 - A Simple Plan - Scott Smith

Up until sometime about two years ago, I had no idea that the Sam Raimi film A Simple Plan was based on a book.  I loved that film, I think it's the best film Raimi has made.  Better than his Evil Dead or his Spiderman films.  Then I saw this book in the charity book section in a local branch of Tesco.

For only 50p, it was well worth the effort of picking it up.

The question is, is this a rare case of the film being better than the book, or, as more normally happens, the book is better than the film?

If I say that halfway through this I went online to order his other book, The Ruins, that would be a good sign that I liked this.

It is indeed better than the film it spawned.  Knowing the storyline wasn't an issue as the film makes several changes to the narrative.  I suppose those changes worked for the film and kept the character of Hank more sympathetic.  In a book, you can give the thought proceses that lead to a bad decision.  In a film its a good deal more difficult so I understand why, plus Raimi's changes gave us a heroic action sequence near the end, which is entirely absent from the book - replaced with Hank sinking to his lowest point.

The story follows two brothers, Hank amd Jacob, and Jacob's friend Lou.  They're driving in the snow when they swerve to avoid a fox and crash into a verge.  Jacob's dog jumps out of the pickup truck and chases the fox.  When they go after the dog they find a small plane crashed in the woods.  On board the plane is a duffel bag containing 4.4 million dollars. 

The simple plan of the title is that they will keep hold of the money till springtime, when the plane will certainly be discovered, see if anyone is chasing the money, if not, they'll split it and leave town, if they are, and there's going to be trouble, Hank will burn it so no one ever knows they had it..

Of course the plan doesn't quite go to plan.

The way things spiral completely out of control is brilliantly done.  Every action taken follows on logically from the next. Bad decisions on the spur of the moment lead to violence and recrimination. To say any more would be spoilerific in the extreme.

Hank is a great narrator.  His supporting cast are excellently drawn.  I loved the way that the initial characterisation of Jacob came from the description of his truck.  A description that told us almost as much about Hank as it did Jacob.

The tension ratchets up throughout the book, and in the closing chapters particularly I found myself almost forgetting to breathe with the depths to which Hank found himself sinking. 

Brilliant book.  easy 9/10.  I will be reading more by this writer.