Billy Summers

This latest work from King is another thriller/crime novel. There are 24 chapters, and about 515 pages of story. Billy is a troubled Iraq war vet sniper, who has now become a very professional hitman. He uses several identities as cover, one of which is a writer. The pacing is pretty slow for the first half of the book, as Billy's character is established. We learn about his past traumas, and his skillful, observant, and clever nature. Billy seems to get some cathartic benefit from using his cover as a writer to express his inner thoughts, and some of my favorite parts of the book were his early writing efforts. Halfway through the book, we meet Alice, another troubled character that has suffered through her own brutal traumas. From the point that Billy meets Alice, the book morphs into more of a revenge quest; hunting down the bad guys to make them pay for their crimes. This shift in pace and motivation almost makes it seem like a different story, and I wonder if this part was written after the pandemic? There are also a few cool easter eggs, or references to places from other King books, that I'm sure Constant Readers will appreciate. Overall I enjoyed this book even more than “Later”, King's other crime novel released this year. I thought the pacing was a little slow in the first part of this book, but it did give some depth to the main character; and reading Billy's struggles and development as a writer was entertaining. I enjoyed the ending of the book so much, that I feel like it more than makes up for a slow start to the book. Overall another good book from King, and I think that fans of his that recognize some of the references might enjoy it even more.

I'm going to start of by saying that I think it's a real shame that the "top" (meaning having garnered the most "helpful" clicks by other reviewers) 4 reviews of BILLY SUMMERS are all extremely short and strongly negative, criticizing, once again, the author's well known anti-Trump feelings. Many of the negative "reviewers" state that they didn't even finish the novel, but quit reading and asked for a refund (That is a weird concept to me - I'd never consider returning a book because I didn't like it). These are also highly misleading as "top" reviews, since in total, 1 and 2 star reviews comprise only 3% of the total, with 5 and 4 star reviews making up a remarkable 93% of over 11,300 reviews to date. OK, enough of that. As is easily deduced from the professional (newspaper, periodicals etc.) excerpted reviews on the Amazon page, BILLY SUMMERS is very different from the usual horror/science fiction/fantasy that King is so well known for. This one is a crime thriller about a paid assassin, the eponymous BILLY SUMMERS who is doing one last job before retiring for good at the age of 44. A highly decorated Gulf War veteran who became a sniper in the Marines, Billy only takes on jobs where the intended target is a really bad guy. He's still a murderer of course, but his complex moral code, made very clear in the first half of the novel when acting as his undercover identities for several months, he becomes incredibly popular with his new neighbors and their kids. He's invited to dinners, hosts cookouts and becomes a monopoly legend, while waiting for the signal from his employers that the arrival of the target is imminent. One of the narrative devices that King uses is to have Billy's main false identity be that of a writer. Eventually Billy decides to do it for real, and starts to write his history, from a horrible childhood through his time in Iraq. This story within a story (sort of) was one my favorite pieces, as Billy slowly realizes that he is actually quite good at writing. The second half of the short (for King that is, around 520 pages) novel turns into a kind of road trip-buddy-love story that is quite beautiful, suspenseful and unputdownable. Enough synopsis, as the several twists and turns of this crime story that becomes a mystery as to why this target and who is really behind the hit is hidden until very near the end and deserve to be totally unspoiled. There is a brief and repeated callback to one of the creepiest happenings in one of King's most famous and popular novels in there somewhere, but aside from the nods to that older work, there is not the slightest hint of anything of the supernatural or occult, which is one of the reasons that I waited so long to read BILLY SUMMERS in the first place. My bad. This is an outstanding piece of writing and plotting all the way through. Very Highly Recommended. JM Tepper

There are several phases to King's career. The first phase, the second phase, the third phase and the one he's in now. I became enamoured of his work in the first phase, when he wrote some of his best-known and best-loved books. I still think that's his greatest phase, generally speaking although he still managed to put out some genius work in the second phase. The last two phases haven't been all that consistent. However, he is still capable of writing good stuff that matches the early work. Books like 23.11.63, Under The Dome and Joyland for example. Billy Summers is one of those. I was curious to read it as it seemed like a 'straight' novel, that is one without a supernatural component. And so it turned out to be. It's no big secret that King has often yearned to turn away from supernatural 'horror' stories and has done so with the series starting with Mr Mercedes. I think Billy Summers is the best example of a non-horror story since the work he did under the Richard Bachman pseudonym, specifically the highly underrated novella, Roadwork. It's a great story, well told and any fan of Mr King should read it. I won't bother to get into the details of the story, you can find that out for yourself easily enough. Suffice to say it's one of those that moves along very swiftly. I won't use the old hackneyed phrase but you'll want to get back to it until it's done. I found myself purposely putting it down so I didn't read it too fast. I'm sure he had just as much fun writing it as I had reading it. Take it from someone who has been reading S. King since he was in high school -- this is one of the good ones and it showcases all of his considerable talents. The characters are vivid, the story is well plotted and paced, the details are right on point. There are a couple of odd things to do with weaponry (like the idea you can silence a revolver) but that's nothing major. If you love a good story well told, you'll enjoy it immensely. I know I did.

527 pages 4 and 1 / 2 stars Mr. King writes a compelling and compassionate story about outlaw sniper Billy Summers. Billy was witness to some horrifying events while serving duty with the Marines in Fallujah, Iraq. He became known as a deadly and highly accurate sniper. He buried the feelings about his experiences for several years and got about his life and career. He more or less accidentally happened into his first assassination. His target was a very bad man. He became well known as someone who would only kill those who were truly bad. He researched his targets before taking them out to assure himself of the facts. Billy Summers thinks like a philosopher, but reads trashy magazines in public and talks “dumb” as a part of his cover. His latest assignment is the case of another assassin. He will be escorted to the jail after losing his last hearing while fighting extradition. This has been a months-long process. Billy has eerie feelings about the case, but the fee is two million dollars, five hundred thousand up front. Almost reluctantly, he takes the case. He is given a place to live and becomes friends with many neighbors and their children. He thinks this may be a bad move, but he has never fit in anywhere, and it feels darn good to meet these people and have barbeques with them. His cover during the several months of waiting for his target to show is that he is writing a book. He has always wanted to write. It begins slowly, but the writing picks up speed and it is really very good. He writes about his awful childhood, his sister and his time in Iraq. This occurs over a long period of time. He is presented with an escape plan that involves two wise guys and a panel van. Billy doesn’t like this idea. He has always made his own escape plans and it has never failed. He goes about to make his own plan without telling the “boss.” When the deed is done, Billy sets out to implement his plan. The wise guys are hunting him. He knew it was too good to be true. While in hiding, He rescues a young woman. This is where Billy shows his goodness. It is a heartwarming scenario. The two become friends. Alice will now play a major part in the balance of the book. The reader also meets Bucky later on who also plays a significant role in the drama. Billy is never paid the balance of his fee. Now is the time for payback. He and Alice set out to recover what is Billy’s. Mr. King takes a different path from his usual genre in this latest novel. He creates the perfect anti-hero in Billy Summers. I found myself rooting for Billy and although I questioned the involvement of Alice, she seemed to be willing and determined to help him. Reading along, I found that I liked Billy. It seemed “wrong,” but I couldn’t help myself. He was a likable guy. I read many genres of novels, but Stephen King remains one of my favorite authors. I read his first book (was it really that long ago?), and will continue to do so.

This was a very interesting book. It follows the life of Billy Summers, who at a very young age kills his drunk/drug addicted mother's boyfriend. The boyfriend has just literaally stomped Billy's little sister to death for burning a cookie sheet full of cookies. Needless to say, Billy has a very tough childhood, bouncing around state homes and foster care. At 16, Billy's foster father signs paperwork allowing him to join the Marines. There Billy finds his talent, which is being one of the best snipers the Marine's have at the time. After leaving the Marines, Billy becomes an assassin for hire. He is quite good, doing his job and getting away clean. Billy's moral code requires that anyone he kills be a "bad man", which in his mind justifies his killing. His story progresses to a "one more job" senerio, where he plans to retire after this last hit. This is where the story gets interesting. He is set up with housing and backstory (he is supposed to be writing a book) while waiting for the man he has been assign to kill to get extradited from another state. This takes a couple of months and Billy decides to try to write his life story as a novel. His novel starts with the death of his sister. We now have a novel within a novel. After making the assigned kill, Billy gets double crossed and is on the run. He is in hiding when he meets Alice, a young woman who has been brutally raped and left for dead in the street in front of Billy's "safe house". Against his better judgment he takes her in. *****SPOILER ALERT***** This is the baseline for the book. Yes it does graphically depict the war in Iraq. Yes, it graphically depicts Alice's rape. Yes, it graphically depicts his "hits". It is, afterall, adult fiction about a hired assassin! Does Mr. King interject his political views in the writing of this book? Yes, he does, but I felt most are within context. And, unlike other reviewers here, I did not find them intrusive. I think those reviewers have done themselves a disservice tossing the book, but that's just my opinion. I also question how they can review a book they refused to read? This book does not have a happy ending. Although Billy takes care of all the bad guys and saves Alice, he realizes that he himself is a "bad man". His moral code has been shaken to the core. Like many others, I have found some Mr. King's latest novels mediocre at best. But this one is definitely a winner, if you stick with it. I found it to be a great read and thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is a really good book from Stephen King, that almost reminds me of the Bachmann books. It is a surprisingly sweet story about a hired killer who wants out of the business, but he runs 8nto problems trying to get out. As usual, the characters are impecably written, and the story moves along in a swift pace. I loved everything about it.

If you are one of the constant readers who thrive on, and expect plots where the supernatural adds to the movement of the story, you will be sorely disappointed with Billy Summers. For you this book will be so unlike Stephen King, that you may hate it. King is an excellent writer, and stepping away from his most recognized genre, he shows you just how good he is. This is crime fiction. It could almost be considered a literary crime fiction, as the main characters are well developed and you will have a deep dive into who Billie Summers really is. Many reviewers who can accept King as a straight forward author minus the horror/supernatural genre are saying this is one of his best books in years. Billy is an ex-Iraq war sniper who puts his post-battle skills to use as a hit man for hire. His standards are that he only takes jobs to take out “bad people.” Billy Summers also features a book-within-a-book, because Billy is writing a memoir about his childhood and war experiences. This gives readers a deeper look into who Billy is and how past experiences contributed to his later lifestyle. At times, I did find this a bit of a stopper in the flow, as I would be interested in the current activities, then suddenly it broke away to his memoir. However, you won’t become confused, as the memoir sections are written with a different style of type. Even so, without these memoir passages one would never get a full understanding of Billy. On the whole I found this book a very satisfying read. If you like crime novels and character studies, you will too.

As Stephen King has gotten older, he’s been more and more willing to step out of his comfort zone, finding new and interesting stories to tell and areas on which to focus. Until now, the most obvious example of this was Mr. Mercedes, in which King tried his hand at a serial killer novel, but found a way to do it that made it feel undeniably his own. That’s not to say that Mr. Mercedes was bad, mind you – I enjoyed it – but it definitely felt like King trying his hand at something different, and stretching it all to fit his ideas and tropes. But now comes Billy Summers, an “assassin with one last job” tale, and what’s remarkable is the fact that it’s simultaneously a superb, faithful entry in the genre that hits all the needed beats, but also unmistakably a King book, with the character development, relentless pacing, and set pieces he’s so capable of delivering when he’s at his peak. What’s more, Billy Summers finds King focusing his abilities in a way he hasn’t in a while, paring back some of his verbal tics and overly large characters in favor of a well-observed, surprisingly internal story about a very bad man reckoning with the choices he made that led him here. And the result is one of King’s best books in years – probably since 11/22/63, and that was a decade ago. As you’d expect from the “one last job” mention I gave, the setup of Billy Summers sounds formulaic: an assassin (one who argues that he only kills “bad men”) agrees to take a job that sounds off (if nothing else, he’s going to have to live “undercover” in a small town for months while waiting on the job to happen) because it’s time to get out, and he can’t turn down the money. Classic, right? But even early on, it’s clear that King has more on his mind than just the tropes. There’s the way that Billy, our assassin, is so clearly putting on a front of his stupidity, using that to lull people around him into letting down their guard. There’s the fact that Billy is all too aware that his “only bad guys” excuse is just that – an excuse that he’s using to justify his own actions. And there’s the fact that this last job doesn’t turn out to be the set piece of the book, or the climax…but something that happens at only a third of the way through our pages. So what’s left after that? Well, quite a bit, it turns out, as Billy Summers turns into something wholly different in many ways, all while never losing its focus on Billy’s development, as this very bad man begins to grapple with his identity – not just the choices that led him to this job, but his upbringing, his time in Iraq, his first jobs, and so much more. And thanks to some unexpected developments, Billy finds himself viewing himself in a new light – and a wholly more complicated one. Part of what’s so good about Billy Summers is watching the book evolve and change in front of you, so I’m trying to be coy about so much of what unfolds here. But what I’ll say is that the book does what King does best: marry genre thrills (in this case, a relentless thriller about an assassin) with strong, complex character work. And what he pulls off here is some of his best effort on both of those fronts. The plotting is tense but effective, using King’s gifts for pacing and tension to maximum effect, but also knowing when a much-anticipated event should subvert our expectations, or knowing when things can be best left off the page. And at the same time, King finds a way into Billy’s mind in a way that allows him to find even more of a voice than usual for a King character, eschewing King’s normal verbal tics and running catchphrases and instead giving us a complex individual who doesn’t really fit into easy categories. And the cast around him measures up to that, as King takes archetypal roles (ones almost demanded by the genre) and makes them individualistic and believable, down to the ending, which is one of King’s best and sidesteps his famed iffiness on nailing the dismount. Look, I’m a King fanboy, to be fair, and you can take this review knowing that I’ve liked way more King books than not. But to me, Billy Summers is a knockout, one that finds King focused and taut and showing a confidence in this (for him) unfamiliar genre that he’s earned. The book is tighter than he’s often gone, wasting little time but never forgetting the complexity of its cast, and it does right by both its thriller story and its complex protagonist. I absolutely loved it, and it’s a treat to see King still delivering knockouts this late into his career. And if you’ve always wanted to try King but weren’t into horror, well, do I have a treat for you.