Billy Summers is a paid assassin. He is ranked among the best snipers in the world, a decorated veteran of Iraq who takes on missions only if the target is truly bad. And now Billy wants to retire. However, he is offered one last job – and the offer is too big to refuse.

Billy settles in a small town, Red Bluff, in an office overlooking the courthouse stairs, from where he will shoot his target. He is supposed to be an aspiring writer. So he begins to write. First about his childhood, then about his days in the military. About Fallujah. And soon he discovers an ever-growing yearning for the unusual power that storytelling gives him.

But the day of the assassination approaches and Billy is increasingly sure that something is going wrong with this job. He just doesn't know how wrong yet, nor does he know about the woman who will help him in his effort to set things right. Part war story, part love letter to America’s small towns, this impressive novel features one of the most unexpected couples in King’s fiction, who together aim to take revenge for the crimes of an incredibly wicked man.

Billy Summers is a book about love, luck, fate, and a final attempt at redemption.

They said about the book:

“Billy Summers is an ambitious and subversive blend of literature that combines the war novel with notes of romance and noir, all in an unusual story of late coming of age. It is truly enjoyable, capable of affecting all the senses.” –The Wall Street Journal

“A powerful story that absorbs you, about a clever hitman struggling to follow the straight path – the best novel from the author in many years… thrilling, skillfully written, it has the hallmarks of a classic detective story with doses of the fantastic.” –The Los Angeles Review of Books

“King weaves many stories into this book – a thriller, at least two coming-of-age tales, and a unique road story – masterfully intertwining them without losing a single stitch... King has never been in better form – he ensnares his readers so skillfully in the tentacles of his narrative and offers a shocking conclusion.” –Booklist, starred

Stephen King is one of the most significant writers of our time. He has written over 50 novels, 200 short stories and essays, with sales exceeding 350,000,000 copies. Among his works, many of which have been adapted into films or series, are Salem's Lot, It, The Stand, the epic Dark Tower series, The Shining, The Green Mile, Misery, Hearts in Atlantis, The Institute, Outsider, Elevation, Sleeping Beauties (co-written with his son, Owen King). He has received the Bram Stoker and Locus awards from the British, American, and International Associations of Horror Writers, the Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and the National Medal of Arts from the USA, and in 2016 he was honored by the Library of Congress for his Lifetime Achievement, and in 2018 he received the prestigious PEN literary award.

Moreover, The Outsider and The Institute took first place in the Goodreads Choice Awards in the mystery and thriller category in 2018 and 2019 respectively, while If It Bleeds was nominated in the horror category in 2020. King lives in Bangor, Maine with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.