Monday, November 15, 2021

Billy Summers by Stephen King

First Line: Billy Summers sits in the hotel lobby, waiting for his ride.
 
Billy Summers is the best assassin money can buy, but he'll only do the job if the target is a truly bad guy. He's a decorated Iraqi war veteran, one of the best snipers in the world, and he's Houdini when it comes to vanishing once the job is done. Billy knows that it's time to retire, but there's one last job, one last truly bad guy, to take care of before he quits.
 
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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 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.

Billy Summers by Stephen King
Narrated by Paul Sparks
ASIN: B08V9HZGJP
Simon & Schuster Audio © 2021
Audiobook. 16 hours, 57 minutes.
 
Contemporary Fiction, Standalone
Rating: A
Source: Purchased from Audible.

12 comments:

  1. I really like that description, Cathy - A garbage man with a gun. It suits what Summers does. I know what you mean about King, too. He's done a variety of different sorts of books, so not every one of them is to everyone's taste. But he can draw you in, can't he? I'm glad you liked the audio format, too. I don't usually do audio books, myself, but I know a lot of people love 'em.

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    1. I can't say that I love audiobooks; I don't think I ever will unless my eyes give out altogether. But I do like them, and I realize that they fill an important niche in the literary world.

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  2. I can't wait to read this one. A person who reads Archie comics and Zola!

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  3. King does have a way with writing memorable characters! This one intrigues me.

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    1. Yes... King and memorable characters seem to go hand-in-hand.

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  4. King does seem to have more consistently left the horror genre behind lately; sounds good. This one is tempting me to pick up a Stephen King book for the first time in a long while.

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    1. I must've mellowed in my old age; I'm glad he's moved away from the horror genre, too. Although there is a scene or two that I closed my ears to as I listened.

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  5. I'm glad to see you enjoyed Billy Summers. I thought it was a terrific book.

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    1. I don't cry over many characters in the books I read. Billy was one of them.

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  6. King is definitely a good writer who is able to create memorable characters and scenarios. I am not a horror fan, so I like to see him using his skills on more in the mystery and crime genre. This one sounds intriguing.

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