The Ruins

by Scott Smith

My rating: 6/10

In 1993, Scott Smith wowed readers with A Simple Plan, his stunning debut thriller about what happens when three men find a wrecked plane and bag stuffed with over 4 million dollars. A rather great movie of the same title was made from it, starring Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton.

Now, twelve years later, Smith is back, with The Ruins, a horror-thriller about four Americans traveling in Mexico who stumble across a nightmare in the jungle. Those of you familiar with A Simple Plan may wonder if this new book generates the first book’s harrowing suspense. Yes, it does. Is it as successful and fulfilling as a novel? No. It’s a good story, but it seemed it a bit stretched out.

It’s hard to say much about the book without giving away everything. It tells the tale of four young American tourists who make friends with a German named Mathias whose brother has gone off into the jungle with some archaeologists. This group heads to the jungle to find Mathias’s brother, the archaeologists, and the ruins. What they find instead is a very interesting trap from which there appears to be no escape.

I purchased this book because I loved A Simple Plan and because the book’s jacket compared it to the television show Lost. Though the story is a bit more Stephen King than A Simple Plan, I felt it suffered from the comparison to Lost.