Billy Summers: Life and Redemption of a Hitman

Billy Summers by Stephen King

Humans are inherently good!

Everyone who has committed heinous crimes has always somehow justified their actions in their heads. Otherwise, it would not be possible for them to continue leading a normal life. Life as a criminal weighs people down and eventually they would want to quit and settle down. But that’s easier said than done!

The Plot

Billy Summers is a decorated war veteran who becomes a gun for hire. He takes up jobs that involve killing bad people such as wife-beaters, pedophiles, and other killers.

After decades of living under false names and fake appearances, Billy has finally decided to give all of it up and retire from this life and settle down.

Billy’s most trusted friend and his agent Bucky, come up with a dubious Last-Job, to kill another assassin, Joel Allen. Joel is also a killer for hire but with no moral compass. He once killed a kid just to send a message to someone.

Joel is harboring a damning secret, one that can incriminate a lot of big and wealthy moguls and aristocrats. Billy is assigned to get into a new character, an author! (don’t ask why 😊) He’s supposed to move into a building close to the court where Joel is supposed to be arraigned.

A backstory is created to go with the character, Billy is David Lockridge. He has a deadline to finish his novel (the novel is top secret). He just moved into the neighborhood to complete his novel and for artistic inspiration.

Billy is also given an office to work in, which is also the building right opposite the court, from where he needs to take the shot.

He has to wait until Joel Allen is brought to trial. Meanwhile, he actually works on his novel and makes friends with his neighbors and colleagues at work.

The kill-shot and its aftermath

Just when he was getting comfortable with his life, the day comes and he takes the shot neat and clean. he already has an exit planned.

A few days later, when billy is still waiting for the buzz in the media to blow off so that he can execute his exit plan, a teenager is dumped by the garbage by 3 men in a truck.

Billy rescues her and finds out that she’s Alice, and she has been gang-raped by the three men, one of whom is supposedly her boyfriend.

Alice has a bruised face and choke-marks on her neck, and more importantly, she is psychologically scarred. Billy takes care of her and helps her recover.

In that process, she discovers that David Lockridge is in fact Billy Summers who has killed Joel Allen. But, Alice is unfazed as she is not threatened by Billy. They form an unlikely bond and she decides to escape with Billy as she sees no point in continuing her life in that city.

The Payback

The story is all about the entanglement of Billy’s life with Alice and his neighbors.

And, as History and countless Hollywood movies are testimony to the fact that the last job is never that simple. Billy’s last job is no different.

His employer skips his payment. And to add to that, there is a hit of 6 million dollars on Billy.

The story is about Billy navigating through the murky waters of crime and at the same time trying to protect Alice and his friends.

But destiny has its own way of springing surprises onto us, and Alice and Bucky are more than involved in Billy’s plan of seeking revenge on his employer and getting to the people responsible for all this mess.

Alls well that ends well? not so much!

Billy Summers is a Noir, and things get pretty dark really soon. Don’t expect the typical fairytale ending where everyone gets what they want. There will be surprises and mostly sacrifices.

But we can take respite in the fact that the basic tenets of Humanity i.e ‘Good begets Good’ holds true here as well, and the book itself closes with the bittersweet aftertaste of revenge.

Similar Read: The Kind Worth Killing

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