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Billy Summers Hardcover-West Jordan
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From the Publisher
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of August 2021: Billy Summers made me fall in love with Stephen King’s writing all over again. In it, King introduces a hit man with heart who only kills bad people, and he’s the best in the business. Billy is about to retire but can’t resist one last job. His cover is that he’s a writer, and Billy begins to write the story of his life while he waits for his target. Billy’s personal account is part of what I loved most in this novel—from a brutal childhood to his experiences as a sniper in Iraq, Billy felt so real I almost forgot he wasn’t. And when the job is finished, it’s only the beginning, as Billy and his new companion Alice—whom he rescued from her own violent ordeal—set off to hunt down one more man who will pay for his wrongs with death. Billy Summers is a surprising, sleight-of-hand novel of love, heartbreak, redemption, and retribution from a master storyteller. —Seira Wilson, Amazon Editor
Review
“A testament to its author’s undimmed energy and confidence. His eye for detail, especially at the dreckier end of roadside culture, is sharp…lively and vivid.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Among the many remarkable things about Stephen King is that he has yet to run out of ideas. Or put another way: He’s very good at finding new ways to explore themes that have interested him his entire career… The passages where Billy writes his life story are some of the best in the book… It’s when [Billy] finds an audience for his story that the book really starts to find its groove.”
—Rob Merrill, The Associated Press
“A first act of stunning formal control… a delicious engine of tension… a delightfully tense crime thriller… somehow both hard-boiled and human, and on par with much of King’s best work… King can still build tidal waves of tension from the smallest deviation from plan, sending Constant Readers plunging deep into the flop-sweat insecurities of his heroes as they watch a situation potentially spiral out of control. In situating Billy’s atonement in communication and creation, not violence, King manages to find a space for redemption… Billy Summers is winningly optimistic about the life of the creative mind. More than almost any other King book in recent memory, it’s a product of its time, but not a victim of it.”
—William Hughes, The AV Club
“Stephen King is an artist, and readers and critics who underestimate him do so at their own peril…Billy Summers is a very good story, told economically with an ear for rhythm. It’s about what it’s like to be a human being, and how that doesn’t really change much, no matter what situation you find yourself in…while there are plenty of action sequences, the heart of this novel lies in its quietest moments.”
—Philip Martin, The Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette
“A love letter to the transformative effects of putting words on paper…the impassioned argument Mr. King makes for the role of writing in healing traumas is heartfelt and affecting… fast-paced and cleverly constructed… written with Mr. King’s legendary eye for detail, and his ability to immerse readers in the mindsets of fictional characters serves the story well… witnessing this deeply-scarred man discover a new way of seeing himself and his place in the world is beautifully resonant. Mr. King’s sheer pleasure in the alchemy of turning mere words into entire universes is on full display here, and it is contagious — not just for Billy, but perhaps for Constant Readers as well.”
—Wendeline Wright, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Stephen King hits the mark with assassination thriller Billy Summers…It’s downright unfair, really: Not only is Stephen King an undisputed master of horror, he’s a virtuosic crime novelist as well… King actually is as good at the hard-boiled prose—in this case, the tale of an extremely effective assassin trying to get out after one last job—as he is the scary stuff… King’s known for his literary villains, yet in creating his killer title protagonist, he exquisitely gets into the mind of a hitman and roots around in there to figure out what kind of person would do wetwork, the loneliness involved for those who choose that as a career path and the effect it would have on friends and loved ones… The biggest crime here, however, would be missing out on Billy Summers and King’s new reign as a pulp genius.”
—Brian Truitt, USA Today
"King’s latest endeavor begins with a familiar premise: decorated veteran Billy Summers, a principled hit man on the eve of retirement, agrees to do one last job. Things go south in spectacularly bad fashion, making for a characteristically King thriller about luck, fate, and redemption. To see the undisputed master of horror shift into the realm of noir thrillers is proof that King can still surprise and astound us, all these decades later."
—Esquire
"King has multiple novels in play here—thriller, at least two coming-of-age stories, and a knockout road novel—and he knits them together beautifully, never missing a stitch … King has never been better than he is here at wrapping readers into a propulsive, many-tentacled narrative—complete with a perfectly orchestrated, moving ending."
—Booklist, starred
"[A] tripwire-taut thriller… King meticulously lays out the details of Billy’s trade, his Houdini-style escapes, and his act to look simpler than he is, but the novel’s main strength is a story within a story… This is another outstanding outing from a writer who consistently delivers more than his readers expect."
—Publisher's Weekly, starred
"The ever prolific King moves from his trademark horror into the realm of the hard-boiled noir thriller … Murder most foul and mayhem most entertaining. Another worthy page-turner from a protean master."
—Kirkus, starred
Product details
- Publisher : Scribner (August 3, 2021)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 528 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1982173610
- ISBN-13 : 978-1982173616
- Item Weight : 1.75 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.13 x 1.7 x 9.25 inches
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Best Sellers Rank: #5 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews:
