Billy Summers

Did You Know?

• Stephen King first mentioned the novel in an NPR interview in April 2020, where he discussed having to change the story from taking place in 2020 to 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Entertainment Weekly officially announced Billy Summers on January 28, 2021, with a release date of August 3, 2021.
• In February 2023, Warner Bros. Pictures acquired the project and was developing it into a feature film, with Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz writing the script.

Plot

Billy Summers, a former Marine sniper and hitman, accepts a final job from mobster Nick Majarian: kill Joel Allen, another hitman who is about to be arraigned for murder and may talk to police. The job pays $500,000 up front and $1.5 million after completion. Billy goes undercover as writer David Lockridge in Red Bluff, renting an office with a view of the courthouse where Allen will appear. Suspicious when Nick provides a getaway plan—unusual for their arrangement—Billy suspects Nick intends to kill him afterward.

He secretly rents an apartment in Midwood under the alias Dalton Smith. While waiting, Billy writes a fake book, using pseudonyms to recount his own life: at age eleven, after his mother's drunk boyfriend killed his little sister, Billy found a gun and shot the boyfriend; he later entered foster care and joined the Marines at seventeen. The hit on Allen proceeds without issue. Billy escapes by disguising himself as an office worker, avoiding the transit truck Nick had arranged.

He hides in the Dalton Smith apartment. When Nick withholds the remaining payment, Billy realizes his suspicions were correct and learns a $6 million bounty has been placed on his head.

Characters

William 'Billy' Summers, also known as David Lockridge or Dalton Smith, is the protagonist, a hitman and former U.S. Marine Corps sniper. Joel Allen, a former hitman, is Billy's target. Roger Klerke, a wealthy media mogul, previously employed Allen and hired Summers for the hit; his son Patrick was killed by Allen on Roger's orders. Nick Majarian serves as middleman and is the second main antagonist. Alice Maxwell is discovered and befriended by Billy. Bucky Hanson is Billy's long-time friend. Ken Hoff owns the building where Billy works as a writer. Frank, an employee of Nick, is handicapped by Billy; his mother Marge also works for Nick.

Reception

Billy Summers shot straight to the top of the New York Times fiction list for the week ending August 7, 2021. John Dugdale of the Sunday Times called it proof that the 73-year-old King is back at his peak, praising the novel’s discipline and adventurousness in both action and deep psychology. Neil McRobert of the Guardian hailed it as King’s finest work in years, highlighting his signature muscular, heightened realism. McRobert noted that the strange contrast between the book’s sunny, slow first half and its later tension works because King excels at building characters we care about through tiny, telling details.