Just Finished Reading Billy Summers by Stephen King

In my reading I tend to use my public library system and check out the books.  With new releases from popular authors, this can take a while, though, and I had to wait several weeks before Stephen King's latest novel, Billy Summers, was available because of the large backlog of holds on it.  I was able to obtain it as an audiobook and read it while at work.  Billy Summers, naturally, is the story's protagonist and would fit the classification of an "antihero", that is someone who compels the reader's sympathy and loyalty but who is also involved in illegal or antisocial activity...you know, someone like Bonnie and Clyde, the Godfather or numerous characters Clint Eastwood has portrayed.  In Billy's case it's that he is a professional hitman, albeit one who only kills people he knows are bad...those hiring him are aware of this precondition and take care to let him know the full depravity of his next target.  He is met and driven to a mobster figure he's known and worked with to get his next assignment: another hitman, arrested on unrelated charges and who is threatening to turn state's evidence on some very important people.  They in turn want this dude vanquished before he can spill the beans, and so here's Billy Summers to solve the problem.  Convinced that the hitman is bad, Billy accepts the assignment and the story progresses from there, with him living for several months among others in a lower-middle class neighborhood and getting to know them more than he had intended.  There is a specific moment when Billy, whose value in the "trade" derives from his sharpshooting expertise at sniping, has to be at a certain window trained on a specific spot below.  That's all well and fine, but Billy...who has pretended to be a lot dumber than he really is...can put the pieces together and realizes that whoever put out the hit on the hitman would most likely want him eliminated as well to cover up the trail.  So he develops an elaborate escape plan involving a secret identity...how it all works out is something that you, the potential reader of this fine story, will have to discover for yourself.  I will say that King splits his narrative into two main sections: the ongoing hit job Billy is tackling and his earlier life, progressing from childhood through his military experiences in Iraq...and particularly "La-La-Fallujah"...as a sniper.  In the novel's second half the reader discovers that this story is a part of Stephen King's fictional universe as his earlier novel The Shining is indirectly referenced through the Overlook Hotel's burnt remains and another eerie phenomenon...I like King's propensity for doing this kind of thing.  And the novel's ending had a peculiar little twist to it, making the reader first think that it is going in one direction until the story's real conclusion is revealed.  I liked Billy Summers a lot and recommend it...Stephen King is my favorite author and this book just reinforces that sentiment...