If Stephen King had written The Equalizer.

I am a diehard Stephen King fan, and have been for decades, or as some would say, “back when he was putting out his best work.” So of course I was going to get around to reading BILLY SUMMERS, picking it up last Christmas in paperback. Though I am not nearly as tough on King as some fans when it comes to his output in the 21st Century, I did think the last book of his that I read, THE INSTITUTE, was a mixed bag, as clearly the parts having to do with the young protagonists and the man who becomes his savior very much engaged him, harkening back to FIRESTARTER and CARRIE, while other parts felt as if they were written by a most disinterested author.

I’m happy to say that there was none of this drag in BILLY SUMMERS, as it is a work by a mature writer still willing to take risks, and put in the effort to craft a compelling story. The title character is an Iraqi vet who has used the skills he learned in the military and in the streets of Fallujah to become a hit man, one that Billy is quick to point out, only kills “bad men.” The book opens with Billy undertaking what he plans to be his last job before retiring after a big payday. Billy has been hired by some shady characters to assassinate a prisoner on his way to court. He’ll only get one chance at this target, and to do this he has to assume a false identity and blend into the population of a small town in order to be in the right place at the right time to take the kill shot. The story takes a twist when on the day of the hit, it becomes apparent that Billy is being double-crossed, and must then use all his skills to outwit the police and the criminals who arranged for him to make the hit in the first place. While in hiding, he comes to the aid of a young gang rape victim out of necessity, an act which sets Billy on a redemption arc, one which includes tracking down the man behind the men who set him up for a fall. It reads a lot like Stephen King’s version of THE EQUALIZER.

I guess the hit man is to modern times what gunfighters were to the Old West. One of our pop culture’s most enduring tropes is the supremely capable killing machine who, for a price, can take out anyone no matter how untouchable they might appear. The freelancer with a sniper’s rifle who can make any shot no matter how difficult, and works both sides of the law, or outside of it when necessary. This person is a fantasy, but it is one the public can’t resist.

One thing King has done well in this book is mash up the genres, borrowing liberally from man-on-the-run noirs, crime and suspense thrillers, coming-of-age tales, and on-the-road epics. Though on the surface, there appears to be no supernatural elements working in this story, there is a pertinent location cameo from THE SHINING when the characters find themselves in Colorado. Later, in Nebraska, the mention of a certain town’s name will be familiar to fans of THE STAND. But what I took from BILLY SUMMERS was that it is very solid story telling with a pace that doesn’t lag, a strong narrative, and coming in at 500 pages and some change, felt just about as long as it needed to be and no more. I found its biggest strength to be a very well-crafted title character who remained compelling to the end. It is one of King’s tried and true tropes in that he often crafts main characters who are either writers or creative in another way, so it is no surprise that he has Billy pass himself off as a writer while waiting out the days to make the hit. Because of this, Billy sits down at a computer and begins to tell his life story, thus telling the reader how he got to be the person he is now. This story within a story is King at his best, and showcases his talent for portraying the American lower class and those who fall through society’s cracks not as victims of a system, but as survivors of tough circumstances. King also did his homework when it comes to the Iraq War, crediting Bing West, and his book NO TRUE GLORY in the afterward, for creating some riveting scenes set during the battle of Fallujah. Of course no Stephen King novel is complete these days without a nod to his political views, which are most evidently expressed in this book in the depiction of a villain who has more than a passing resemblance to a certain powerful figure in American media.

All in all, I agree with those who say this is King’s best book since 11-22-63. And it makes a good companion piece of a kind with the MR. MERCEDES series, which makes me wish we could have gotten a crossover between Billy and Bill Hodges and Holly Gibney.

My book, BIG CRIMSON 1: THERE'S A NEW VAMPIRE IN TOWN, can be found on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3GsBh2E
and on Smashwords at: https://bit.ly/3kIfrAb

My alternate history novel ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964 can be found on Amazon at: http://amzn.to/2jVkW9m
and on Smashwords at: http://bit.ly/2kAoiAH

Visit my Goodreads author's page at:
http://bit.ly/2nxmg

Visit my Amazon author's page at: https://amzn.to/3nK6Yxv