Rating: 
Summary: Simply a Great Story
Review: I read this book for the first about a couple of years ago now. I think the one thing that made me take the book off the shelf was a tribute on the front cover from Stephen King. I don't usually buy books on the basis of the covernotes but I thought I would give this one a go. I am very glad I did. Basicly the story revolves around a small town american who finds a lot of stolen cash. The story then develops as he struggles to keep what he now sees as his money a secret. Time goes by and he gets more and more desperate. The great strength in the book is that his character and mental state changes in such a way that it sweeps you along with it. The book really conveys a sense that the money has changed his life forever and everything that now happens to him is inevitable. Scott Smith's writing is quite similar to Stephen Kings in that scenes and characters really get fleshed out. Unlike King's books though where you tend to get a steady buildup to a fireworks and all ending, this book has a series of mini climaxes leading to an ending which is probably the most disapointing part of the book. When I read this book I thought it was one of the best horror/thrillers I had ever read. It would still be in my top three now. I would recommend it to anybody.
Rating: 
Summary: ZzZzZz....had to force myself to read it
Review: i have to say this is literally the most boring book i've ever read. the plot is very simple. the author scott smith could have easily made the book 100 pages. he made, what should have been a short book, very long. i had to force myself to read the whole book. i saw so many good reviews of the book that i thought it was going to get better later on...boy was i wrong. he could have written that book in 25 pages probably. my god, i can't believe other readers rated this book so high. there are many other, waay better books out there. it deserves 1 star instead of zero only because i could finish the whole book. do yourself a favor, look past this book please...
Rating: 
Summary: Not perfect but close enough
Review: Perhaps this isn't "classic literature", but who cares? It's fun, engrossing, suspenseful, and memorable. It is the story of ordinary Americans facing extraordinary moral decisions and how they come to rationalize their actions. Whether we admit or not, on smaller scales most of us go through very similar thought processes, "now-or-never" decision making, etc., in an effort to maintain secrets, schemes, and aspirations - and that's why you will identify with the characters. The key to this book's success is not taking itself too seriously; it does NOT try to impress you with intellectualism and 25-cent words, but it reads with simple, effective suspense building ingredients. I found this much better reading than predictable thriller writers like Baldacci, Grisham, etc. A very believable storyline that could happen to you or I in Anytown, U.S.A.
Rating: 
Summary: A simple mind
Review: I bought this book originally because it received a great review on NPR. Boy, what were they smoking? I can't remember a more unpleasant reading experience in a long time. There is no one in the book to like. The characters are simple minded and lacking in any real form of self awareness. Their behavior is inexplicable and stupid in the extreme. Given characters that one doesn't care about, the plot becomes irrelevant. One doesn't care what happens to them. Actually, one is only too painfully aware of what is going to happen, because these yahoos clearly can't think beyond the end of their noses. Very disappointing book.
Rating:
Summary: good book
Review: The book was so exciting one that it had to be read fastly.The story was very good.Lots of money was found and the finders made a plan how to keep it.The plan was firstly simple,but when it started to fail,many people had to be slain.After one slaying,they thought that they have to continue or the slaying would have been useless to do.In the end the money have been marked and have to be wiped out and many people have gotten killed for nothing.That's the plot of this very good novel.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent escapism
Review: A man, his brother, and his friend discover a downed single-engine plane in the woods outside of town. The lone pilot is dead and in the back seat is 4 million dollars in cash. A roller coaster tale follows as the three try to decide what to do with the money. Written in the 1st person, I felt like a co-conspiritor with them. Events just snowball out of control. I wish I could find more novels like this one. I almost ate the book!
Rating:
Summary: Best Book of all time
Review: Ok, I never read at all unless I have to. I have only read two books i have EVER liked. This is one of them. This is my favorite. It is incredibly suspensful and well written. I wish it was longer though. I am a terribly slow reader, but this book has over 400 pages and i read it in a week (that is a miracle for me). After I read this book they came out with a movie a few months later. I went to see the movie, it was good, but only half as good as the book. Make sure you read the book before you see the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Suspense will kill you
Review: I'm not a reader at all really. I'm your average teen playing video games. My mom picked this book to do my book report. This book just keeps leading you on. The suspense is great. It makes you wonder. The book about is about friends you can't trust with money and you are trying to hide the money from the police. They found money in a downed plane, that's all I will say about the book. What would you do. The reason it was not a 5 is because the ending was to fast.
Rating: 
Summary: A well-written shocker
Review: What is shocking about this book is that many events mentioned here are not unbeleivable. When the going gets tough, the person gives up his/her scruples and looks out for a way to escape (murder/suicide/whatever). This seems to be the central theme of the book. Though shocking and extremely difficult to like and accept, the theme of the book must be accepted. The book is written well, not too fast, laid back, taking its own time to develop. Once you get through the first hundred pages, the book will pull you back to it. But I dont like the book because its too violent.
Rating:
Summary: Smith gets it half right.
Review: I admire writers who put their characters in difficult situations, ones where they are not immediately "likeable,"--and applaud writers who, despite these difficult circumstances, can create empathy (not to be confused with "sympathy") for those characters. Smith gets it half right. Yes, the situation is difficult, the protagonist morally bankrupt, but Smith fails miserably in his attempt to make us give a damn. Intentionally or not, this reader despised the protagonist (and pretty much everyone else involved in the "plan") from the moment he commits the first murder. The very weak rationale the protagonist (and Smith) supplies in an attempt to justify his extreme actions falls utterly flat in the face of murder. When a writer loses his readers so early in a long novel, he's got a major fight on his hands to win them back. Sadly, Smith loses.
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