A Simple Plan

Scott Smith's debut is a masterclass in moral unraveling. Three ordinary men find $4.4 million in a crashed plane, and what follows is one of the most precisely constructed crime thrillers of the 1990s. Smith traces Hank's step-by-step complicity with chilling emotional accuracy — every decision feels inevitable, every lie compounds the last. The rural Ohio setting is vivid and unglamorous in exactly the right way. Fair warning: this is relentlessly dark. Nine people die, there is no redemptive arc, and the ending offers no comfort. Adult readers who can handle that will find it unforgettable. Not appropriate for children or younger teens under any circumstances.