The Ruins

The eerie, unputdownable thriller featuring two Americans couples exploring ancient Mayan ruins who come to find something 'other' among them...

Smith intends to scare the bejabbers out of you, and succeeds .... Does for Mexican vacations what Jaws did for New England beaches in 1975.

The suspense novel of the year. This is compulsive reading. Scott Smith sets out to frighten and he succeeds brilliantly with this harrowing psychological chiller.

It's been more than a decade since Smith's impressive debut, A Simple Plan. The wait has been worth it, with this tense, dense oppressive thriller taking the reader into new dimensions of fear ... Every time you think the book has hit a high in terror, it somehow gets more unbearable.

A tour de force of terror, a novel that seduces, shocks and dares you to keep reading. There's a timeless fable at work here, one that prompts thoughts of Heart of Darkness

Bloodcurdlingly horrific ... It's the contract between the familiar and the unspeakable that makes this book so harrowing.

Please, please let this be the most disturbing novel of the year .....Smith writes with psychological acuity and real beauty, yet he doesn't pull any punches.

Aficionados of the horror-suspense genre can start breathing again, but only for a minute. Author Scott Smith has returned with a new shocker ....The action is swift and the suspense is positively unflinching ...Smith's nail-biting tension is a pleasure all its own.

A classic horror story, told with mounting detail. Smith spins it out relentlessly, piling chill on chill on chill ....what happens, and needless to say it's not good, is something readers will read page after flapping page to discover.

Scott Smith was educated at Dartmouth College and Columbia University. He is the author of the bestselling novel, A Simple Plan. He lives in New York.

'Superior horror literature' New York Times 
'A compelling set-up and provocative premise' Kirkus 
'There's no let-up, not so much as a chapter-break where you can catch your breath' Stephen King 
__________________ 
 
Craving an adventure to wake them from their lethargic Mexican holiday before they return home, four friends set off in search of one of their own who has travelled to the interior to investigate an archaeological dig in the Mayan ruins. 
 
After a long journey into the jungle, the group come across a partly camouflaged trail and a captivating hillside covered with red flowers. Lured by these, the group move closer until they happen across a gun-toting Mayan horseman who orders them away. In the midst of the confrontation, one of the group steps inadvertently backwards into the flowering vine. And at that moment their world changes for ever...

Scott Smith

'Damned good...for sheer gruesome entertainment, this book is going to take some beating'

'A classic story of crime and punishment'

That rare and satisfying combination: a compulsive thriller which also happens to be a beautifully-written and original work of art

Simply the best suspense novel of this year - hell of the 90s

Astonishing...A harrowing exploration of the banality of evil

Every year, on 31 December, Hank and his older brother Jacob make a pilgrimage to their father's grave. They have never been close - indeed, they have never even liked one another - but they keep this promise, made to their father before he died. 
 
This year Jacob's friend Lou comes with them. As they drive towards the cemetery in Jacob's truck through the snowbound landscape, a fox runs across the road, and they skid on the ice and crash. Jacob's dog chases the fox through the deep snow. The three men follow him, beating their way through the drifts, until they come to a valley where they see a small plane, belly down in the snow. In the pilot's seat is a dead man, his eyes pecked out by the crows. In the back they discover a duffle bag. In the bag is 4.4 million dollars. 
 
A Simple Plan is a novel that slowly but surely grips the reader by the throat as it unfolds in an inevitable and doomed spiral of events, through murder, betrayal and mass killing. From its deceptively simple beginning, to its horrific and surprising conclusion, it marks the début of an extraordinary new talent.

Scott Smith

Praise for A Simple Plan

'Damned good...for sheer gruesome entertainment, this book is going to take some beating'

'A classic story of crime and punishment'

That rare and satisfying combination: a compulsive thriller which also happens to be a beautifully-written and original work of art

'Damned good...for sheer gruesome entertainment, this book is going to take some beating'

'A classic story of crime and punishment'

That rare and satisfying combination: a compulsive thriller which also happens to be a beautifully-written and original work of art

'Damned good...for sheer gruesome entertainment, this book is going to take some beating'

'A classic story of crime and punishment'

That rare and satisfying combination: a compulsive thriller which also happens to be a beautifully-written and original work of art

Books by Scott Smith

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