Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Scribner (2021), Edition: First Edition/First Printing, 528 pages
Description
"When Billy Summers was twelve years old, He shot and killed his mother's boyfriend after he kicked Billy's sister to death. At 17, he enlisted in the army. At 18, he was a sniper in Iraq and involved in the deadly battle to recapture Fallujah. For nearly twenty years, he's worked as a paid assassin. He's a good guy in a bad job, and he wants out. He takes on a very complicated, very lucrative job that he hopes will be his last. He's got a perfect new identity lined up and a scrupulously orchestrated, flawless escape plan. And then something happens that changes everything for Billy. A stranger needs rescuing, and Billy sacrifices the safety of his own perfectly devised new life to offer her protection. And then the two of them-the most compelling and surprising duo in King fiction-set out on one last mission, to rectify the injustices of one extraordinarily evil man"--… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member invisiblelizard
As much as I enjoy a good Stephen King book, this just wasn't one of those. I hate to say it, but Billy Summers had a couple major flaws. Warning that there are going to be some massive spoilers ahead because I can't say all the things I want to say without them. Don't read further if this matters
1. How many books was he trying to write? At a high level, you have at least two: Billy's backstory and Billy's contemporary (present day) story. But you can kind of break down Billy's contemporary story into at least two sections: before he meets Alice and after he meets Alice, because the plot changes drastically when he meets her. Or you could split his contemporary story into: "before he assassinates Joel Allen" and "everything after," because nothing he does during his waiting time before the kill, nobody he interacts with in that small town, comes up again after he makes that shot. There was a lot of story in those first 175 pages. Shame they got discarded so efficiently.
2. How many endings did he really need? Okay, the idea that Alice finishes writing his novel was, for lack of a better term, novel. I liked that device as a means to finish both stories. But Jesus why did he need to re-tell the entire ending all over again just to correct the few things that Alice changed? I liked her ending better anyway. Do King's protagonists always need to die in the end? Those were the most grueling 16 pages in the book. Because I knew he wasn't going to make it. I just had to watch him die in slow, agonizing, motion. In the end I was more than a little annoyed with King for not picking one ending and sticking with it. This felt a little over-indulgent from a writer who decided he'd earned the right to write two endings if he goddam felt like it.
3. He really didn't know where this story was going when he started. This one is a little bit of a cheat because I just finished King's excellent treatise On Writing detailing his craft, in which he says, clearly and repeatedly, that he doesn't plot out his books first. He comes up with good characters, places them in unique situations, and then just lets them play out as he writes, the story unfolding organically. He says he doesn't know for sure where they will end up until he gets to the ending. Well, no shit. That was abundantly clear here. This story rambled all over the place. Lone gunman trying to blend into rural America, then lone gunman takes his shot and hides from the cops and the bad guys trying to kill him, then lone gunman saves girl from a tragic fate, then gunman and girl go on a road trip, then revenge, then more revenge, then multiple endings, oh and a whole bunch of backstory in there as well (backstory, by the way, he explicitly says in On Writing that he does not like). If there was a thread tying all of that together I'd be much more forgiving, but each part could have easily been taken from completely different novels. If the character names weren't the same, I would suspect that's exactly what he had done.
4. No matter what ending you choose, they both kind of suck. The old lady who shows up at the end and shoots him, what's up with that? Where did she come from? I mean, really? We met her like once before, in a single scene. She was just barely above a nobody. Meanwhile there was this red-haired dude named Dana who had been set up from the beginning to be the Big Bad who would get Billy in the end, but King curiously does away with him a hundred pages before the end of the novel. So to have Marge show up at the last minute—magically, unexpectedly, confusingly—and give us a totally crap ending is what you'd call a Diabolus ex Machina. Deus ex Machina or Diabolus ex Machina, they're both hallmarks of lazy writing and I've come to expect more from Stephen King.
So yeah maybe I'm being a little hard on this book. Individual parts of it were a lot of fun. Most of them were. Pulled together, they just didn't make a lot of sense. And that ending, those endings, were just bad. Skip this one, Constant Reader. Give Steve's back catalog another perusal if you really want a good one from the master.
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to you.1. How many books was he trying to write? At a high level, you have at least two: Billy's backstory and Billy's contemporary (present day) story. But you can kind of break down Billy's contemporary story into at least two sections: before he meets Alice and after he meets Alice, because the plot changes drastically when he meets her. Or you could split his contemporary story into: "before he assassinates Joel Allen" and "everything after," because nothing he does during his waiting time before the kill, nobody he interacts with in that small town, comes up again after he makes that shot. There was a lot of story in those first 175 pages. Shame they got discarded so efficiently.
2. How many endings did he really need? Okay, the idea that Alice finishes writing his novel was, for lack of a better term, novel. I liked that device as a means to finish both stories. But Jesus why did he need to re-tell the entire ending all over again just to correct the few things that Alice changed? I liked her ending better anyway. Do King's protagonists always need to die in the end? Those were the most grueling 16 pages in the book. Because I knew he wasn't going to make it. I just had to watch him die in slow, agonizing, motion. In the end I was more than a little annoyed with King for not picking one ending and sticking with it. This felt a little over-indulgent from a writer who decided he'd earned the right to write two endings if he goddam felt like it.
3. He really didn't know where this story was going when he started. This one is a little bit of a cheat because I just finished King's excellent treatise On Writing detailing his craft, in which he says, clearly and repeatedly, that he doesn't plot out his books first. He comes up with good characters, places them in unique situations, and then just lets them play out as he writes, the story unfolding organically. He says he doesn't know for sure where they will end up until he gets to the ending. Well, no shit. That was abundantly clear here. This story rambled all over the place. Lone gunman trying to blend into rural America, then lone gunman takes his shot and hides from the cops and the bad guys trying to kill him, then lone gunman saves girl from a tragic fate, then gunman and girl go on a road trip, then revenge, then more revenge, then multiple endings, oh and a whole bunch of backstory in there as well (backstory, by the way, he explicitly says in On Writing that he does not like). If there was a thread tying all of that together I'd be much more forgiving, but each part could have easily been taken from completely different novels. If the character names weren't the same, I would suspect that's exactly what he had done.
4. No matter what ending you choose, they both kind of suck. The old lady who shows up at the end and shoots him, what's up with that? Where did she come from? I mean, really? We met her like once before, in a single scene. She was just barely above a nobody. Meanwhile there was this red-haired dude named Dana who had been set up from the beginning to be the Big Bad who would get Billy in the end, but King curiously does away with him a hundred pages before the end of the novel. So to have Marge show up at the last minute—magically, unexpectedly, confusingly—and give us a totally crap ending is what you'd call a Diabolus ex Machina. Deus ex Machina or Diabolus ex Machina, they're both hallmarks of lazy writing and I've come to expect more from Stephen King.
So yeah maybe I'm being a little hard on this book. Individual parts of it were a lot of fun. Most of them were. Pulled together, they just didn't make a lot of sense. And that ending, those endings, were just bad. Skip this one, Constant Reader. Give Steve's back catalog another perusal if you really want a good one from the master.
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LibraryThing member AdonisGuilfoyle
Help wanted: a reader with sense to whack me over the head with my (purchased at full price) hardback copy of this book, punctuating the following warning with physical violence: Stop. Buying. Stephen. King's. Books! I should have learned my lesson with 22.11.63 but apparently I am no more immune
Swapping horror for crime, apart from a few nods to The Shining, Cujo and The Stand, King's latest potboiler is about a hitman on 'one last job' which of course is a set up and 'goes bad', pitching the eponymous hired gun into a life on the lam and a quest for revenge. If that all sounds like a cliché, then the summary is but a warning of the overlong and tedious story at large. Billy is a sniper who likes to justify his mercenary lifestyle by calling his hits 'assassinations' and insisting that he only kills 'bad guys' (and never hits women, natch). He has a 'dumb self' persona, complete with comic books and thousand yard stare, which is supposed to mask his keen, literate brain (he reads Zola and knows big words!) but actually makes no sense - who would trust - and pay - a slack-jawed yokel to carry off a hired hit? Neither is the thinking man's thug an original conceit - think Lawrence Block's Keller stories or HBO's Barry. One of my favourite films is Grosse Pointe Blank with John Cusack, about a disillusioned hitman who goes back to his hometown for a school reunion, and this puffed up adventure doesn't come close.
My biggest problem with King's latest 'pay for the label' production isn't the predictable plot or bland characters, however, but the author's own idiosyncrasies. Churned out in a year, including six months of lockdown, Billy Summers has a contemporary setting but feels horrifically dated. The local community where Billy beds down in preparation for his last hit is straight out of the 1950s, where women wear 'housedresses' and bake cookies and children play Monopoly, drink milk, and still say 'See you later, alligator!' There is even a fun fair with a Toonerville Trolley, which I last saw referenced in a photograph of John Kennedy Jr in the 1960s, and a shooting gallery! I was expecting some sinister, sci-fi twist to this anachronistic portrayal of America, like zombies or robots, but no. King is just horrendously out of touch.
And if using dialogue like 'potato buster' for a silencer and calling laptops 'lappies' isn't awkward enough, there is also homophobia (the 'camp caricature' of a gay man who wears gold parachute pants and flowered shirts), fat jokes ('Georgie Pigs'), sexism and even black face, albeit lampshaded by King ('Good thing the PC police aren't on patrol'). The most spectacularly painful subplot, however, is the rape of a young girl called Alice who falls in love with Billy after he 'saves her life'. The rescue consists of Billy dragging her unconscious form in out of the rain, losing his one item of clothing in the process, stripping her naked and examining her genitalia, getting into bed with her to 'keep her warm' and getting turned on in the process. And of course she elects to stay with him, eternally grateful that he wasn't the one who raped her. Billy jokes that she is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, but that's exactly what is going on. She asks why he didn't call the police or take her to hospital and he says, 'Well, you weren't exactly circling the drain', or she was only (gang) raped so he didn't see the urgency. And her wounds from the attack are actually very serious but the only trauma she seems to suffer is the occasional panic attack (cured by singing 'The Teddy Bear's Picnic', don't ask). I was appalled with the whole relationship, especially when he ramps up the male saviour act by getting revenge on the men who defiled her.
Nothing, not one thing, about this book or the characters is convincing, from the 'traumatic childhood' backstory excusing Billy's life of crime to the convoluted and heavy-handed exposition behind his professional swan song (Jeffrey Epstein, is that you?) Billy is neither good, bad or amoral because he doesn't have a personality at all, and Alice is there merely to take care of him and coo 'My hero!' and 'I love you!' King should really stop writing women while he's behind.
I'm guessing everyone is going to rave about this book because of the author, but I'm done - really done - with Mr King this time.
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to the King brand name than his fans!Swapping horror for crime, apart from a few nods to The Shining, Cujo and The Stand, King's latest potboiler is about a hitman on 'one last job' which of course is a set up and 'goes bad', pitching the eponymous hired gun into a life on the lam and a quest for revenge. If that all sounds like a cliché, then the summary is but a warning of the overlong and tedious story at large. Billy is a sniper who likes to justify his mercenary lifestyle by calling his hits 'assassinations' and insisting that he only kills 'bad guys' (and never hits women, natch). He has a 'dumb self' persona, complete with comic books and thousand yard stare, which is supposed to mask his keen, literate brain (he reads Zola and knows big words!) but actually makes no sense - who would trust - and pay - a slack-jawed yokel to carry off a hired hit? Neither is the thinking man's thug an original conceit - think Lawrence Block's Keller stories or HBO's Barry. One of my favourite films is Grosse Pointe Blank with John Cusack, about a disillusioned hitman who goes back to his hometown for a school reunion, and this puffed up adventure doesn't come close.
My biggest problem with King's latest 'pay for the label' production isn't the predictable plot or bland characters, however, but the author's own idiosyncrasies. Churned out in a year, including six months of lockdown, Billy Summers has a contemporary setting but feels horrifically dated. The local community where Billy beds down in preparation for his last hit is straight out of the 1950s, where women wear 'housedresses' and bake cookies and children play Monopoly, drink milk, and still say 'See you later, alligator!' There is even a fun fair with a Toonerville Trolley, which I last saw referenced in a photograph of John Kennedy Jr in the 1960s, and a shooting gallery! I was expecting some sinister, sci-fi twist to this anachronistic portrayal of America, like zombies or robots, but no. King is just horrendously out of touch.
And if using dialogue like 'potato buster' for a silencer and calling laptops 'lappies' isn't awkward enough, there is also homophobia (the 'camp caricature' of a gay man who wears gold parachute pants and flowered shirts), fat jokes ('Georgie Pigs'), sexism and even black face, albeit lampshaded by King ('Good thing the PC police aren't on patrol'). The most spectacularly painful subplot, however, is the rape of a young girl called Alice who falls in love with Billy after he 'saves her life'. The rescue consists of Billy dragging her unconscious form in out of the rain, losing his one item of clothing in the process, stripping her naked and examining her genitalia, getting into bed with her to 'keep her warm' and getting turned on in the process. And of course she elects to stay with him, eternally grateful that he wasn't the one who raped her. Billy jokes that she is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, but that's exactly what is going on. She asks why he didn't call the police or take her to hospital and he says, 'Well, you weren't exactly circling the drain', or she was only (gang) raped so he didn't see the urgency. And her wounds from the attack are actually very serious but the only trauma she seems to suffer is the occasional panic attack (cured by singing 'The Teddy Bear's Picnic', don't ask). I was appalled with the whole relationship, especially when he ramps up the male saviour act by getting revenge on the men who defiled her.
Nothing, not one thing, about this book or the characters is convincing, from the 'traumatic childhood' backstory excusing Billy's life of crime to the convoluted and heavy-handed exposition behind his professional swan song (Jeffrey Epstein, is that you?) Billy is neither good, bad or amoral because he doesn't have a personality at all, and Alice is there merely to take care of him and coo 'My hero!' and 'I love you!' King should really stop writing women while he's behind.
I'm guessing everyone is going to rave about this book because of the author, but I'm done - really done - with Mr King this time.
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LibraryThing member phoenixcomet
For the first time ever, a Stephen King novel came dangerously close to bringing me to tears. Billy Summers is a top-rated assassin. He never misses. He has also decided that he done with the assassin game, and is going to complete one more job and call it quits. Billy only shoots bad guys, really
In some ways this is a love story but not in the way that you think.
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bad guys. Naturally things do not go quite as planned and then they are further complicated when a young 21 year is brutally raped, nearly dies, and is dumped in front of his hideout. In some ways this is a love story but not in the way that you think.
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LibraryThing member norinrad10
How do you review a Stephen King book? The man is a brilliant writer, with a vivid imagination and a tactician's skill.
While once the crafter of classics, in recent years, King would at times favor one skill over the other. producing works that were fantastic but flawed. At times, it often seemed
In Billy Summers he brilliantly pulls the two sides together and produces a compelling tale that likely kept him well entertained along the road to completion. A win/win for King and the reader.
Billy Summers is the tale of a former soldier who served in Iraq and has since transformed into a successful hitman who only kills bad men. This was supposed to be the last assignment, but when things go terribly wrong the story's protagonist is forced to re-examine his life while trying to make it to the finish line. What happens along the way is testimony to King's skill as a writer and will leave the reader well rewarded.
While once the crafter of classics, in recent years, King would at times favor one skill over the other. producing works that were fantastic but flawed. At times, it often seemed
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as if he was writing merely to amuse himself, with the reader being an afterthought.In Billy Summers he brilliantly pulls the two sides together and produces a compelling tale that likely kept him well entertained along the road to completion. A win/win for King and the reader.
Billy Summers is the tale of a former soldier who served in Iraq and has since transformed into a successful hitman who only kills bad men. This was supposed to be the last assignment, but when things go terribly wrong the story's protagonist is forced to re-examine his life while trying to make it to the finish line. What happens along the way is testimony to King's skill as a writer and will leave the reader well rewarded.
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LibraryThing member flourgirl49
Once again, this Stephen King book is too long. It went along at a good clip for a while, then bogged down into kind of a convoluted mess. Things that bothered me: the easy way the female sidekick went from a naive young lady to a hardened partner easily capable of shooting somebody - not too
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believable; the use of the terms lappie and thumbie - I've never known anyone who talked like that; lots of people wearing "gimme caps" - again, never even heard the term before. Although I really like (or used to like) King's writing, silly stuff like that mars the experience for me. His short stories are really the best. Show Less
LibraryThing member Twink
Oh, I have been eagerly awaiting Stephen King's latest book - Billy Summers. I've read every book King has written and this one is absolutely one of his best.
Billy is a hired killer. But he only kills those he deems 'really bad men.' He needs to wait around until this latest job is a go and to
At least that's his plan. But nothing goes to plan, nothing.
I'm in awe of King's storytelling. Billy is so likeable despite his profession. The reader cannot help but be on his side. Even more so as we become privy to Billy's past from the book he's writing. I love the book within a book trope. It's a great way to bring the past into the present.
The plotting is intricate, detailed and full of surprises. I'm going to let you discover those surprises on your own. Billy presents what he calls his 'dumb Billy' to those who have hired him now and over the years. But Billy is far from 'dumb.' Getting himself out of this mess is going to take all his cunning, skills and tricks. King keeps the reader on their toes as the plot takes numerous turns that you won't see coming. And as I got closer and closer to the end of the novel, I had stop listening a couple of times. I didn't want the book to end and I was afraid of the ending King had chosen. I knew what I wanted to have happen, but what would I find in the final pages?
I chose to listen to Billy Summers. I've listened to the last few King books in audio format and find his already great storytelling is made even better by listening for me. I become completely immersed in the book. The right reader is key and Paul Sparks was the perfect choice. He has a smooth, slightly gravelly, low, modulated speaking voice that absolutely suits the mental image I had of Billy. It draws you in and makes you listen carefully. Sparks speaks clearly, at a good speed, enunciates well and his voice is easy on the ears. He provides distinctive and believable voices for the supporting characters, ranging from gangsters to a young girl and many others. I was able to immediately know who was speaking and the conversations were realistic. Sparks uses his voice to bring the twists, danger, tension and action to life and drops the listener right into the story. A great performance! And an amazing book!
(Faithful King readers will enjoy finding the Overlook Hotel mention.)
Billy is a hired killer. But he only kills those he deems 'really bad men.' He needs to wait around until this latest job is a go and to
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blend in he's given a rental home in a suburban neighborhood, an office and a cover story as an author. To his surprise, Billy makes friends in the neighborhood, blends into the office strata and he actually begins to write a story. He decides that this is going to be his last job. At least that's his plan. But nothing goes to plan, nothing.
I'm in awe of King's storytelling. Billy is so likeable despite his profession. The reader cannot help but be on his side. Even more so as we become privy to Billy's past from the book he's writing. I love the book within a book trope. It's a great way to bring the past into the present.
The plotting is intricate, detailed and full of surprises. I'm going to let you discover those surprises on your own. Billy presents what he calls his 'dumb Billy' to those who have hired him now and over the years. But Billy is far from 'dumb.' Getting himself out of this mess is going to take all his cunning, skills and tricks. King keeps the reader on their toes as the plot takes numerous turns that you won't see coming. And as I got closer and closer to the end of the novel, I had stop listening a couple of times. I didn't want the book to end and I was afraid of the ending King had chosen. I knew what I wanted to have happen, but what would I find in the final pages?
I chose to listen to Billy Summers. I've listened to the last few King books in audio format and find his already great storytelling is made even better by listening for me. I become completely immersed in the book. The right reader is key and Paul Sparks was the perfect choice. He has a smooth, slightly gravelly, low, modulated speaking voice that absolutely suits the mental image I had of Billy. It draws you in and makes you listen carefully. Sparks speaks clearly, at a good speed, enunciates well and his voice is easy on the ears. He provides distinctive and believable voices for the supporting characters, ranging from gangsters to a young girl and many others. I was able to immediately know who was speaking and the conversations were realistic. Sparks uses his voice to bring the twists, danger, tension and action to life and drops the listener right into the story. A great performance! And an amazing book!
(Faithful King readers will enjoy finding the Overlook Hotel mention.)
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LibraryThing member DrApple
As always, King's writing is beautiful, and he keeps you reading. The ending was almost inevitable, but I liked the way he handled it.
LibraryThing member Dianekeenoy
I'm a Stephen King fan and read his books straight through and this one was no different! No horror here except for the behavior of very bad men. You will have to suspend your belief on certain things but that's what makes it fiction!
LibraryThing member ecataldi
Stephen King is really bringing the heat on his non-horror books and I am here for it! Billy Summers is about a hired gun who only kills bad guys. It's a thriller with a meaty back story and great character development. Once readers get invested it is impossible to put the book down. Billy Summers
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has just taken a long job. He's to scope out a sleepy little city and fool everyone into believing that he's a writer just looking to finish his book before the deadline. In reality he's one of the best snipers in the world, a former marine who take jobs only if he's sure the person he's killing is really bad. Joel Allen is a bad man, and once he's taken from the jail to the courthouse for his arraignment, Billy will take the shot. He's promised himself that this is his last kill and the payout from this will be big enough that he can retire. What he doesn't know is the big picture. Nothing is going to go down the way he thinks it will and that will cause wrinkles. The only "beef" I had with the story is the character Alice, a loner with absolutely no friends and no close ties to family? Hard to believe - especially the way she is around Billy. It made it easier for the story but it wasn't remotely realistic. Overall though - great storytelling - another great Stephen King novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member waldhaus1
A story about trying to escape from the depths of a bad life. A hired killer with standards. A young women trapped buy unfortunate circumstances. A bare hint of haunting. King's attention to detail always amazes me. One of his better books in my opinion.
LibraryThing member davidroche
Time for some blessed light relief so I followed the favourable reviews for Billy Summers (Hodder & Stoughton), Stephen King’s latest offering. As usual it’s a page turner, with Billy Summers being an ex-Marine assassin hired for one last high profile job which will make him enough to disappear
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and live the life depicted at the end of Shawshank Redemption (the movie, anyway). But all is not as straightforward as it appears – is he also being set up to carry the can? Will his interesting, platonic relationship with the young girl he rescues pay dividends when it comes to payback? I whizzed through this wanting to know what happens next and enjoyed the nods to The Shining here and there, amongst other light touches. As reliable as ever. Show Less
LibraryThing member Stahl-Ricco
“If noir is a genre, then “one last job” is a sub-genre.”
Billy “basically sees himself as a garbageman with a gun.” He’s very intelligent, but presents his “dumb self” to the outside world, especially his employers. One of his four different personas, two with their own homes! His
I'm a huge King fan, so I enjoyed this book, because I enjoy how he writes! But this is a story about an assassin doing a job, and that assassin's back story as a soldier in Iraq. No ghosts, monsters, or supernatural happenings, outside of a weird picture in a cabin near the remains of the Overlook. (those damn shrub animals again!) So, if you are looking for that story, you'll enjoy the read. If you're looking for a more 'traditional' S.K. book, this isn't it.
Billy “basically sees himself as a garbageman with a gun.” He’s very intelligent, but presents his “dumb self” to the outside world, especially his employers. One of his four different personas, two with their own homes! His
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cover story on this job is that he's writing a book. That's how we get to know Billy Summers.I'm a huge King fan, so I enjoyed this book, because I enjoy how he writes! But this is a story about an assassin doing a job, and that assassin's back story as a soldier in Iraq. No ghosts, monsters, or supernatural happenings, outside of a weird picture in a cabin near the remains of the Overlook. (those damn shrub animals again!) So, if you are looking for that story, you'll enjoy the read. If you're looking for a more 'traditional' S.K. book, this isn't it.
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LibraryThing member breic
The story flows smoothly enough—it is Stephen King, after all—but it never makes much sense. Why is there a months'-long setup in a small town? No reason, save that King wanted to write it. Why do the two main characters, Alice and Billy, get together? Maybe Stockholm Syndrome? Again, I have no
> Neither of them knows—no one does—that a rogue virus is going to shut down America and most of the world in half a year, but by their fourth day in the basement apartment, Billy and Alice are getting a preview of what sheltering in place will be like.
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idea. For me, there were too many questions, and it never added up to much. > Neither of them knows—no one does—that a rogue virus is going to shut down America and most of the world in half a year, but by their fourth day in the basement apartment, Billy and Alice are getting a preview of what sheltering in place will be like.
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LibraryThing member sparemethecensor
It's a "one last job" novel that tries to have some extra depth, but good lord, the portrayal of women's trauma and how violence against women is really mostly about the men in their lives is just so appalling beyond words. I couldn't finish the novel.
LibraryThing member TomDonaghey
Billy Summers (2012) by Stephen King. I just finished one of the very few novels where the protagonist is a hired killer. Of course he is a disappointed and disillusioned war vet because they make the best killers. In fact I read a pair of them. Quarry and Quarry’s Cut by Max Allen Collins. Both
The trope is the assassin’s “one last kill for a big payday.” We all know the story will probably end in tragedy for the main character. But again this is King and he has managed to pull many a surprise from his word processor. We ask ourselves if this be one of them. Andre hope all the way through that it is.
When the book opens we meet the Billy of the title. He appears to be rather a simple person. He uses simple words and has an honest look, especially his big eyes, that tend to make people like him on sight. He’s reading a comic book when his employers come to pick him up for the rendezvous with the mob boss, Nick.
Nick offers one last job with a two million dollar payout. Shoot a bad guy who is going to be lead into a local court sometime in the next several months. You must understand that Billy only shoots “Bad Men” because of what happened when he was a child. No need to go into that here, King spends enough time on that issue throughout the novel. This is yet anther of his “traumatized” youth novels, but it isn’t about the youth. It is about what happens when the youth grows up.
For one thing, he joins the Marines, mostly to escape the past but also to…, well that isn’t really put into print. If it was, I can’t recall the reason. I think it was mostly to give the kid some bonafides as a shooter. He not only shot well but he was picked to go to sniper school with his best Boot buddy, Taco. (Don’t say anything about that name please.}
They both get shipped off to Afghanistan where their unit goes through the wringer. Billy survives minus a toe and comes back to the States without a job. He kind of falls into the hired gun line of work, is good at it, and ends up with an agent (an important plot point). He has done 17 jobs and wants to retire with a fat paycheck. Of course.
There is an elaborate set-up for the hit and Billy gets mired done into pretending he is just another guy. He has to live in a small home in a nice neighborhood and works (as a writer) in a procured office across from the courthouse where the shooting is to take place. Not only is Billy aware of the curse of the “last job” but feels the entire setup is very hinky indeed. When he is told how to make his escape after the shooting he knows he has been set up.
The first half of the book is the as described above, plus his own plans on how to get out alive. There is also his interactions with the friendly neighbors and how, as a surprise to Billy, here-to-fore unknown emotions pull on him.
The second half is comprised by him saving himself and a young woman who has been gang raped. And of course there is revenge to those who set him up and to the people who employed they to find the hitter for the job.
I felt there was too much setup. Why would a professional killer allow himself to be manipulated in this fashion? Sure, Billy is not the Mensa type, and he was only a Marine trooper, but it is a little too much to expect him to be used like this. Especially the getaway scenario that smells to high heaven. But again, he is a simple fellow.
Or is he. Turns out Billy is something of an actor. He learned to act “simple” while in the Marines and he kept at it afterward. You might wonder how he could fool the people he has been working for over the past several years. I wondered that myself. But is a given for the book to work so I’ll allow it. But I don’t like it.
For that matter I’m not keen on how easily Billy allows himself to slip out of “dumb self” mode into very capable killer mode. Or why the mob guys wouldn’t think twice about this simpleton not only makes the kill but disappears after each kill.
And there is the ease with which Billy allows himself to be set up, his photo taken for his office building I.D., his fingerprints left all over the crime scene. The contrivances pile one upon another, but we allow it because this is King writing and we know it will all work out in the end.
Then there is the girl who has been ‘roofied, raped and literally dumped in the street just beyond his front door. Why would he get involved with her when he has the police and the mob hoods looking for him? Why stick his neck out with a major complication that he knows will only end in tragedy? The answer goes back to his early story, but really, even that isn’t enough to put your life on the line. But this is a story so it must have plot twists and complications.
And there is the revenge aspect of the story. It is needed, it is necessary, and we want it to happen. But when it does it is so anticlimactic I thought I was reading a much less talented writer. Looking back I got the sense that King might have tired of the story three fourths of the way through and just jizzed together an ending that would make everyone happy. Or not, depending on your taste. The mob guys are pros who think things through and make sure of endings, yet they completely look the other way when so much depends on their vigilance. Un-be-liv-able! And there is the problem of Marge. Nick had to have sent her to the final location, but was she camping out in the woods waiting or just happened to be in the right spot, etc. And why a pistol, bot a shotgun or an automatic weapon of some kind. And why wait? Was she sleeping at the vital moment, ongoing to the bathroom after waiting for hours (and days upon days) and almost missing her window?
And don’t get me started on the “Easter Eggs” scattered about the tale. I know fans like them but here they here they were only a distraction. At one point there was a vast amount of foreboding in a certain location, but then nothing happened, oogie-boogy be damned.
The pace of the book goes from slow to slower to fast. but mainly cruises in the center lanes of the story telling highway. You know, where it is safe and not overly exciting, but where you know danger can come from any direction.
Still, it is a Stephen King novel which means fans will love it even before they have read it and love it even more afterwards. I liked it a great deal myself despite the flaws throughout.
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were good in their limited ways. Billy Summers is also good in its own limited way. I always give Mr. King the benefit of the doubt when I am reading his work. We all know he can manage to scare the socks off us, even when we are wearing lace-up shoes, but this isn’t that kind of book. For a change of pace he pens a tale set in the here and now (or at least a time just pre-pandemic) without relying on oogie-boogy to jump out of either a closet or a clown’s head. This is a much simpler story, but unfortunately it is a trope we’ve come to know and love, but has been done to death.The trope is the assassin’s “one last kill for a big payday.” We all know the story will probably end in tragedy for the main character. But again this is King and he has managed to pull many a surprise from his word processor. We ask ourselves if this be one of them. Andre hope all the way through that it is.
When the book opens we meet the Billy of the title. He appears to be rather a simple person. He uses simple words and has an honest look, especially his big eyes, that tend to make people like him on sight. He’s reading a comic book when his employers come to pick him up for the rendezvous with the mob boss, Nick.
Nick offers one last job with a two million dollar payout. Shoot a bad guy who is going to be lead into a local court sometime in the next several months. You must understand that Billy only shoots “Bad Men” because of what happened when he was a child. No need to go into that here, King spends enough time on that issue throughout the novel. This is yet anther of his “traumatized” youth novels, but it isn’t about the youth. It is about what happens when the youth grows up.
For one thing, he joins the Marines, mostly to escape the past but also to…, well that isn’t really put into print. If it was, I can’t recall the reason. I think it was mostly to give the kid some bonafides as a shooter. He not only shot well but he was picked to go to sniper school with his best Boot buddy, Taco. (Don’t say anything about that name please.}
They both get shipped off to Afghanistan where their unit goes through the wringer. Billy survives minus a toe and comes back to the States without a job. He kind of falls into the hired gun line of work, is good at it, and ends up with an agent (an important plot point). He has done 17 jobs and wants to retire with a fat paycheck. Of course.
There is an elaborate set-up for the hit and Billy gets mired done into pretending he is just another guy. He has to live in a small home in a nice neighborhood and works (as a writer) in a procured office across from the courthouse where the shooting is to take place. Not only is Billy aware of the curse of the “last job” but feels the entire setup is very hinky indeed. When he is told how to make his escape after the shooting he knows he has been set up.
The first half of the book is the as described above, plus his own plans on how to get out alive. There is also his interactions with the friendly neighbors and how, as a surprise to Billy, here-to-fore unknown emotions pull on him.
The second half is comprised by him saving himself and a young woman who has been gang raped. And of course there is revenge to those who set him up and to the people who employed they to find the hitter for the job.
I felt there was too much setup. Why would a professional killer allow himself to be manipulated in this fashion? Sure, Billy is not the Mensa type, and he was only a Marine trooper, but it is a little too much to expect him to be used like this. Especially the getaway scenario that smells to high heaven. But again, he is a simple fellow.
Or is he. Turns out Billy is something of an actor. He learned to act “simple” while in the Marines and he kept at it afterward. You might wonder how he could fool the people he has been working for over the past several years. I wondered that myself. But is a given for the book to work so I’ll allow it. But I don’t like it.
For that matter I’m not keen on how easily Billy allows himself to slip out of “dumb self” mode into very capable killer mode. Or why the mob guys wouldn’t think twice about this simpleton not only makes the kill but disappears after each kill.
And there is the ease with which Billy allows himself to be set up, his photo taken for his office building I.D., his fingerprints left all over the crime scene. The contrivances pile one upon another, but we allow it because this is King writing and we know it will all work out in the end.
Then there is the girl who has been ‘roofied, raped and literally dumped in the street just beyond his front door. Why would he get involved with her when he has the police and the mob hoods looking for him? Why stick his neck out with a major complication that he knows will only end in tragedy? The answer goes back to his early story, but really, even that isn’t enough to put your life on the line. But this is a story so it must have plot twists and complications.
And there is the revenge aspect of the story. It is needed, it is necessary, and we want it to happen. But when it does it is so anticlimactic I thought I was reading a much less talented writer. Looking back I got the sense that King might have tired of the story three fourths of the way through and just jizzed together an ending that would make everyone happy. Or not, depending on your taste. The mob guys are pros who think things through and make sure of endings, yet they completely look the other way when so much depends on their vigilance. Un-be-liv-able! And there is the problem of Marge. Nick had to have sent her to the final location, but was she camping out in the woods waiting or just happened to be in the right spot, etc. And why a pistol, bot a shotgun or an automatic weapon of some kind. And why wait? Was she sleeping at the vital moment, ongoing to the bathroom after waiting for hours (and days upon days) and almost missing her window?
And don’t get me started on the “Easter Eggs” scattered about the tale. I know fans like them but here they here they were only a distraction. At one point there was a vast amount of foreboding in a certain location, but then nothing happened, oogie-boogy be damned.
The pace of the book goes from slow to slower to fast. but mainly cruises in the center lanes of the story telling highway. You know, where it is safe and not overly exciting, but where you know danger can come from any direction.
Still, it is a Stephen King novel which means fans will love it even before they have read it and love it even more afterwards. I liked it a great deal myself despite the flaws throughout.
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LibraryThing member librarygeek33
My first Stephen King book (and I'm a librarian!). I'm not sure what took me so long. Maybe it was because I saw some of the films based on his books and didn't want to get scared silly. It was a pleasure to read a book written by a truly good writer. He is a master!
LibraryThing member DidIReallyReadThat
A sort of average book by Stephen King. I found that process that Billy goes through to maintain different to cover his tracks after an assassination to be fascinating. I just didn't buy the character of Alice as it seemed to farfetched that a woman that was so traumatized recovered so quickly.
LibraryThing member villemezbrown
Stephen King creates a fairy tale version of Richard Stark's Parker who is good at his crimes but only perpetrates them against "bad" people and who spends a lot of time reading books and looking inward. Ready for one last job, the withdrawn loner Billy Summers finds himself getting pulled back
Once again, King is able to pull me along into his story even as it goes too long and splits into unnecessary but entertaining digressions. Mashed into here are the musing of a bookworm, the machinations of a killer, a major character introduced at the halfway point, pages from a novel-within-the-novel detailing domestic violence and battlefield action in Fallujah, thoughts on writing, multiple revenge missions, tie-ins to The Shining, and many swipes at Donald Trump and Fox News.
I think King stumbles when trying to write about rape survivors and by including brownface as a plot point, but I still found myself wanting to turn the next page, though a little less so as I came to the final fifty pages.
Far from his best but better than some of his more recent books, it gets a thumbs up from me.
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into community and the world as he goes undercover in suburbia for his latest assassination.Once again, King is able to pull me along into his story even as it goes too long and splits into unnecessary but entertaining digressions. Mashed into here are the musing of a bookworm, the machinations of a killer, a major character introduced at the halfway point, pages from a novel-within-the-novel detailing domestic violence and battlefield action in Fallujah, thoughts on writing, multiple revenge missions, tie-ins to The Shining, and many swipes at Donald Trump and Fox News.
I think King stumbles when trying to write about rape survivors and by including brownface as a plot point, but I still found myself wanting to turn the next page, though a little less so as I came to the final fifty pages.
Far from his best but better than some of his more recent books, it gets a thumbs up from me.
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LibraryThing member jmchshannon
Billy Summers by Stephen King is another found family story in which the bad guy is not as bad as the really bad guys. Moral ambiguity abounds as Billy Summers, an assassin for hire, decides to hang up his hat after one last hit. Except someone tries to do it for him. What follows is an epic spy
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thriller/whodunit that is twisty and tragic and yet absolutely mesmerizing. Billy Summers is more in the vein of Mr. King’s newer novels than his older horror. Personally, I like his newer stuff more, and I particularly like the moral greyness of this latest. As with his other books, there really are no poor narrators for Stephen King’s books on audio. I feel Paul Sparks did an admirable job with his narration, as he was able to show Billy’s lack of remorse as well as his softer feelings. Show Less
LibraryThing member sturlington
I needed a book I could get immersed in right now, and this was just the book. Billy Summers is a hired assassin who is taking one last job. It has a big payout but something about it seems off to Billy. Part of the job is just waiting; he's embedded in a suburban Southern town where he makes
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friends with the neighbors and starts writing a book about his childhood and his time as a sniper in Iraq. Some readers seem to have found all this setup boring, but I found it immersive and enjoyed reading Billy's story within a story. By the time we get to the job itself, I'm ready to accept the twists that follow. This book deals with some pretty heavy topics, but it's mostly about morality, and it's a pretty suspenseful crime novel to boot. Show Less
LibraryThing member cathyskye
I wouldn't say that I've drunk the King Kool-Aid; there has been a decade or two when I've ignored his books. But I did become indoctrinated when Carrie and 'Salem's Lot were published, and I've been enjoying a renaissance of interest since Mr. Mercedes was released. I decided to try something a
The character of Billy Summers drew me right in. He thinks of himself as "a garbage man with a gun," and thinks That One Last Job should be a literary subgenre. Billy is known throughout his world as the best assassin there is, but he's also thought of as being dumb. He has that dumb smile, that slow way of participating in a conversation, and he reads Archie comics, for cryin' out loud. But don't let him fool you. Billy Summers also reads Émile Zola, something the vast majority of us cannot say.
Billy rapidly gets a bad feeling about This One Last Job. It has him staying in place for months, for one thing. But the man he's being paid to kill is a very bad man, and Billy has given his word. Billy spends the time building his exit strategy, blending in with the people in the office building and his neighborhood, and... writing a book. In many ways, Billy Summers is an homage to writing, to the enlightenment and catharsis it can bestow upon the person who puts pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. As Billy writes his thinly veiled autobiography, readers learn about him and how he's survived one traumatic experience after another. He is, indeed, an assassin with a heart and a conscience.
Moreover, Billy doesn't carry the entire weight of his story solo. As This One Last Job unravels, a young woman named Alice joins him, and so does Bucky, a man Billy has relied upon many times. The three of them bring Billy's story to a satisfying conclusion. I even found myself reaching for the tissues by book's end and wondering what the mind of Stephen King will come up with next.
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bit different with Billy Summers: listening to it on audiobook. I had fantastic success with Michael Connelly, so I figured another publishing powerhouse like Stephen King would have a first-rate narrator, too. I was right. Paul Sparks does an excellent job with the different voices, and his Billy Summers voice has just the right Clint Eastwood edge that's music to these ears of mine.The character of Billy Summers drew me right in. He thinks of himself as "a garbage man with a gun," and thinks That One Last Job should be a literary subgenre. Billy is known throughout his world as the best assassin there is, but he's also thought of as being dumb. He has that dumb smile, that slow way of participating in a conversation, and he reads Archie comics, for cryin' out loud. But don't let him fool you. Billy Summers also reads Émile Zola, something the vast majority of us cannot say.
Billy rapidly gets a bad feeling about This One Last Job. It has him staying in place for months, for one thing. But the man he's being paid to kill is a very bad man, and Billy has given his word. Billy spends the time building his exit strategy, blending in with the people in the office building and his neighborhood, and... writing a book. In many ways, Billy Summers is an homage to writing, to the enlightenment and catharsis it can bestow upon the person who puts pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. As Billy writes his thinly veiled autobiography, readers learn about him and how he's survived one traumatic experience after another. He is, indeed, an assassin with a heart and a conscience.
Moreover, Billy doesn't carry the entire weight of his story solo. As This One Last Job unravels, a young woman named Alice joins him, and so does Bucky, a man Billy has relied upon many times. The three of them bring Billy's story to a satisfying conclusion. I even found myself reaching for the tissues by book's end and wondering what the mind of Stephen King will come up with next.
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LibraryThing member Ashles
The first 400 pages were great. Beyond that, it just didn't do it for me.
LibraryThing member rivkat
Another writer protagonist, this one a killer for hire doing the cliched one last job. It goes south and then he rescues a young woman who’s just been gang-raped, who seems mostly a vehicle for Billy to try to do something good with his violence and ill-gotten gains rather than a character in her
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own right. Also repeated mention of the rape of a child. It wasn’t awful but it definitely wasn’t King’s best. Show Less
LibraryThing member Lukerik
An appalling hypocrite suffers a mid-life identity crisis and begins a process of self-examination, looking for some sort of redemption, but when faced with the choice can’t save himself. Stephen King, the bastard, somehow makes you feel sympathy for this scumbag. The ending is particularly well
The only real problem with the novel is the psychology of the supporting characters. Alice in particular needs a lot of work. The entire supporting cast seems to love the protagonist within seconds of meeting him. But they do so for the same reason we do: because Stephen King has told them to. At lot of the instances you miss as you read as they seem reasonable at the time and the pace is break-neck. Others you can squint at as you go. But as soon as you pause and the spell breaks for a moment… My advice would be to read the whole novel in one sitting.
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done.The only real problem with the novel is the psychology of the supporting characters. Alice in particular needs a lot of work. The entire supporting cast seems to love the protagonist within seconds of meeting him. But they do so for the same reason we do: because Stephen King has told them to. At lot of the instances you miss as you read as they seem reasonable at the time and the pace is break-neck. Others you can squint at as you go. But as soon as you pause and the spell breaks for a moment… My advice would be to read the whole novel in one sitting.
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LibraryThing member antao
“Writing is good. He’s always wanted to do it, and now he is. That’s good. Only who knew it hurt so much?”
In “Billy Summers” by Stephen King
Many eons ago I never had read a Stephen King book. I was aware he was very popular and wrote horror novels so I just skip those. One day I was in
His horror novels are just as well written like “Later”. Has an uncanny ability to deliver the humanity of his characters front and centre regardless of genre. Truly is one of the great modern writers, who is often dismissed because so much of his writing is in the horror genre. In the end “Billy Summers” just seemed a bit uneven to me, like King ran out of steam towards the end. I knew something might be wrong when I had only a small amount of pages left, and they were heading towards getting the bad guy at last. I felt the same way about 11/22/63 which is a fantastic story, so thoroughly researched and intriguing - and remains one of my all-time favourite modern novels - but the ending was a little bit meh for me. Billy Summers was still worth reading though. Again, the research, the detail, the plotting, and the sheer adrenaline of the first half of the book was something else. Absolutely unputdownable. So maybe the endings just aren't meant to "do" what I expect them to do. But that’s just me. My least favourite books - and movies, and TV shows, for that matter - are the ones where all I'm doing is waiting to see how it all turns out. Where everything is written or said just to lead to the what-next. And once the last page is turned or the credits roll, there is nothing else left for me in it. Keep your neat bow I say to writers. Give me loose threads I can pull, tuck where I want, chew, tie balloons to. I may even make a bow. But don't make one for me. I like it when writers leave something at the end for me to hang a bow on.
In “Billy Summers” by Stephen King
Many eons ago I never had read a Stephen King book. I was aware he was very popular and wrote horror novels so I just skip those. One day I was in
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the local used book store and I came across “Different Seasons”. It didn't look like a horror book so I bought it. I just loved it (except the “Breathing Method”) and I especially liked “Rita Hayworth” and the “Shawshank Redemption”. Ever since then I made it a habit to get Mr. King's books that are NOT horror based and have never been disappointed like in “Billy Summers”. I wish he would write more serious stuff and leave the gore to someone else.His horror novels are just as well written like “Later”. Has an uncanny ability to deliver the humanity of his characters front and centre regardless of genre. Truly is one of the great modern writers, who is often dismissed because so much of his writing is in the horror genre. In the end “Billy Summers” just seemed a bit uneven to me, like King ran out of steam towards the end. I knew something might be wrong when I had only a small amount of pages left, and they were heading towards getting the bad guy at last. I felt the same way about 11/22/63 which is a fantastic story, so thoroughly researched and intriguing - and remains one of my all-time favourite modern novels - but the ending was a little bit meh for me. Billy Summers was still worth reading though. Again, the research, the detail, the plotting, and the sheer adrenaline of the first half of the book was something else. Absolutely unputdownable. So maybe the endings just aren't meant to "do" what I expect them to do. But that’s just me. My least favourite books - and movies, and TV shows, for that matter - are the ones where all I'm doing is waiting to see how it all turns out. Where everything is written or said just to lead to the what-next. And once the last page is turned or the credits roll, there is nothing else left for me in it. Keep your neat bow I say to writers. Give me loose threads I can pull, tuck where I want, chew, tie balloons to. I may even make a bow. But don't make one for me. I like it when writers leave something at the end for me to hang a bow on.
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Awards
Barry Award (Nominee — Novel — 2022)
Iowa High School Book Award (Nominee — 2024)
Original language
English
Original publication date
2021-08-03
Physical description
9.25 inches
ISBN
1982173610 / 9781982173616