Eerie, terrifying, unputdownable--Scott Smith's first novel since his best-selling A Simple Plan ("Simply the best suspense novel of this year--hell, of the 1990s"--Stephen King). The Ruins follows two American couples, just out of college, enjoying a pleasant, lazy beach holiday together in Mexico as, on an impulse, they go off with newfound friends in search of one of their group--the young German, who, in pursuit of a girl, has headed for the remote Mayan ruins, site of a fabled archeological dig. This is what happens from the moment the searchers--moving into the wild interior--begin to suspect that there is an insidious, horrific "other" among them . . . From the Hardcover edition.