The Bible Book of 2 Samuel

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Samuel was historically, the last judge of Israel.  So, the title of Judges and the two Books of Samuel would fit well within the personal expertise of Samuel.  Jewish tradition holds that Samuel wrote the Bible Books of Judges and the two Books of Samuel.  The Books are anonymous,, and as such, deal with the 100 year period of history ending with 586 BC.  (There is no mention of the Assyrian invasion of 722 BC - Israel's Fall).  So, the dates are probably 975 to 930 BC for all Samuel.

The Books of Judges and the two Books of Samuel are not independent treaties, but rather a part of a larger set of Books covering the history of Israel from the time of Moses through the Fall of Israel in 586 BC.  They deal with the development of Israel under the leadership of Samuel, Saul and David.  That fixes their purpose as completing history that ended with Moses' Deuteronomy and Samuel's second Book with his name.  Recall that the major reason for all historic writings by and/or for Israel is not documented for the sake of history, per se, rather they are written to document God's relationship with His people.

Like the five Books of Moses, the two Books of Samuel are written primarily to the Historian of Israel picking up immediately after Deuteronomy and before the Chronicles and Kings (sometimes called the four Books of the Kings.)   But those Books are not chronological arranged either.  The Books of 1st and 2nd Kings contain the history of all the monarch while 1st and 2nd Chronicles address only the kings of Judah during the period when the twelve tribes were divided into 10 tribes of the north, called Israel and 2 tribes of the south, called Judea or Judah.  

There are some aspects of the history books during these times which defy reasonable explanation.  Consider just the life of Israel's greatest king, David.  The division between the end of Saul's reign and the beginning of David's reign could have been the ideal place of separation between first and second Samuel, but not so.  We have David hearing of Saul's death after 2 Samuel begins.  It would seem less strange if the death of David was handled differently, but David's death is handled in 1 Kings rather than neatly with the end of 2 Samuel.