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Billy Summers

Billy Summers

SuspenseThriller
Pages
528
Published
2021
Language
English

Synopsis

Billy Summers is a Marine-sniper-turned-hitman who only takes contracts on men who deserve it, and he wants this next job to be his last: half a million up front, a million and a half on completion, to kill a man being extradited to face justice for a murder before he can cut a deal. While he waits under cover in a small Southern town, writing a novel about his own past as part of his assumed identity, Billy starts to suspect the people who hired him plan to make sure he never spends the money — and a chance encounter with a young woman in trouble complicates his careful plan to disappear.

Prose complexity
4/10

Vibe

TenseGrittyDarkThought-Provoking
Anti-HeroRedemption ArcMorally GreyReluctant HeroRevengeSacrifice

Genres

Suspense Thriller Crime

About the author

S
Stephen King

Stephen King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author whose work has defined popular horror fiction for more than half a century. Born in Portland, Maine, he grew up in poverty after his father abandoned the family, and credits his mother's resilience and a voracious reading habit as the foundations of his imagination. He began selling short stories to men's magazines while working as a high school English teacher, and published his first novel, Carrie, in 1974—his wife Tabitha retrieved...

Characters

Billy SummersProtagonist

Marine-sniper-turned-hitman and Iraq War veteran who takes one last contract, killing only men he judges deserve it, before trying to disappear.

Roger KlerkeAntagonist

Wealthy media magnate who orchestrated the killing Billy is hired to avenge and orders Billy's death to eliminate loose ends.

Alice Maxwell (Billy Summers)Supporting

Young woman Billy rescues after a sexual assault; becomes his companion in hiding and, in the novel's frame, finishes his manuscript.

Nick MajarianSupporting

Las Vegas-based crime figure who hires Billy for the final job and is implicated in the double-cross that follows it.

Bucky HansonSupporting

Billy's longtime broker and friend, who arranges his identities, safe house and weapons for the job.

All characters in Billy Summers

Frequently asked questions

  • Who is Billy Summers?

    Published in 2021, Billy Summers is a hitman who will only kill bad people—men he considers deserving of death. He is also a war veteran and a voracious reader who uses a cover identity as a dim-witted writer to blend into a target's neighborhood while he waits for the right moment to take the shot. The novel follows his final job, which goes wrong, and the aftermath.

  • Why does Billy Summers qualify as literary fiction within King's catalog?

    The novel is unusually interested in craft and storytelling: Billy's cover involves writing an autobiography, and chapters of that autobiography appear within the novel. King uses the nested narrative to explore how people construct and protect their inner selves, and how trauma gets processed through story. Billy is also explicitly a reader—his tastes in fiction are a recurring element of his character.

  • What role does Alice Maxwell play in the novel?

    Alice is a young woman Billy rescues after a traumatic assault and who becomes his unlikely companion in hiding. Her relationship with Billy is the novel's emotional center—he protects her while she, in different ways, challenges him. The dynamic is explicitly not romantic; King is interested in a different kind of bond, something closer to guardian and ward.

  • Is Billy Summers a Stephen King horror novel?

    No. Billy Summers is a crime thriller with no supernatural elements—it is King in full crime fiction mode, comparable to The Colorado Kid or Joyland in its genre departure. Readers expecting horror will not find it here; readers who have avoided King due to horror content will find Billy Summers an accessible entry point.

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