One Of Stephen King's Non-Horror Books Takes Place Near His Most Haunted Location

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Stephen King is known for his works of horror, but every now and then, he strays outside of his established genre. His anthology book "Different Seasons" forgoes the supernatural for more grounded stories like "The Body" (adapted to the screen as "Stand By Me") and "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" (which, of course, became the film "The Shawshank Redemption"). One of King's more recent non-horror books was "Billy Summers," a drama-thriller published in 2021. At times, "Billy Summers" reads as if King binged a bunch of episodes of the great HBO series "Barry" and said, "Let me try that, but without the jokes."

The story follows a Marine sniper-turned-hitman, the titular Billy Summers, who is ready to get out of the "killing people" business. He agrees to take one last job, and this job requires some prep work, including creating a cover story. The cover story Billy concocts has him posing as a writer penning a book, and to help sell the illusion, he starts writing for real. And wouldn't ya know it? Billy ends up having a knack for the printed word, and finds the act of writing to be therapeutic (you can see the "Barry" connections here, right? "Barry" was about a hitman who poses as an actor and discovers he has the acting bug; "Billy Summers" is about a hitman who poses as a writer and discovers he enjoys it, etc.). 

Billy eventually finds out he's being set up by the mobster who hired him and he has to go into hiding. While in hiding, Billy befriends Alice, a young woman who was the victim of sexual assault. The two form a close bond and end up going on the run to Colorado, where they shack up with one of Billy's only friends, a guy named Bucky. It's during the Colorado section of the book that King decides to have a little fun and drop an Easter egg reference or two to one of his most famous horror novels.

Billy Summers goes to the Overlook Hotel

Stephen King published "The Shining" in 1977 and it went on to become one of his most beloved books (I ranked it at number 2 on my list of the best Stephen King books). The story follows a family that moves into an empty hotel during the winter off-season — but the hotel, the Overlook, turns out to be not so empty after all. It's a haunted place. King's book was famously adapted to the screen by Stanley Kubrick in 1980, although it's most people know by now that the book and the movie are much different (and King has spent years talking about how much he hates all those changes). For instance: if you've only seen the movie, you may be surprised to know that at the end of the book, the Overlook blows up (Kubrick's film leaves it standing). 

King returned to the world of "The Shining" with his sequel book "Doctor Sleep," published in 2013. Then he decided to briefly return to it again with "Billy Summers." While Billy and Alice are spending time in Colorado, Bucky tells them about the Overlook. At one point, Bucky and Alice go to a spot that looks out at where the Overlook once stood. Bucky comments that the Overlook burned down years ago, and that it was rumored to be haunted. Later, Alice comments that she had a vision of the Overlook, to which Bucky replies: "You're not the only person who's seen that. I'm not a superstitious man, but I wouldn't go anywhere near where the Overlook Hotel used to stand. Bad stuff happened there." 

Cue the ominous music. 

The haunted hedge animals from The Shining make a cameo appearance in Billy Summers

But wait, there's more! Later in the story, Billy goes to a house near where the Overlook once stood to work on his book. On one of the walls inside the house is a painting of topiary hedge animals. At one point, Billy looks up and swears that the animals in the painting have moved places. "The hedge dog is on the right, the hedge rabbits on the left. Weren't they the other way around before?" King writes.

The moving hedge animals are another reference to King's "The Shining" novel. In the book, the topiary animals coming to life is just one of several inexplicable supernatural occurrences that take place at the Overlook. When Kubrick adapted the book to the screen, he got rid of the hedge animals and replaced them with a hedge maze instead. However, the animals did finally make an on-screen appearance in Mick Garris' 1997 miniseries adaptation of "The Shining," a much more book-accurate take on the material which King wrote the screenplay for himself. 

All in all, the "Shining" references in "Billy Summers" don't amount to much. Truth be told, they're slightly distracting, as they take you out of the more grounded, non-supernatural overall story King is telling. Still, if you're a King fan, it's a fun little reminder that while the Overlook Hotel may be long gone, it's not forgotten. As for "Billy Summers," a limited series adaptation of the book was first announced in 2022. Then in 2023, it was revealed plans had changed and the adaptation was now going to be a feature film. We haven't heard anything about the project since then, though, but I imagine that it'll head to the screen at some point. Whether or not the film keeps "The Shining" references is another question.