I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Three Hitmen and a Baby by Rob Hart Series: Assassins Anonymous #3
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on June 16 2026
Genres: Adult, Thriller
Pages: 304
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Mark, Astrid and the gang return in the third installment of Rob Hart’s high octane Assassins Anonymous series. Get ready for a wild ride!
“Lulu is the best,” Booker says.
“A real sweetheart. Unless she’s calling the Russians now to tell them we’re on our way. But I trust her.” I pause and think about it. “I ninety percent trust her.”
Once again, Rob Hart hits it out of the park with this third installment of his riotously fun, high stakes spy thriller series. I always know I’m in for a good time when I start one of these books, and Three Hitmen and a Baby was no exception. I’ll try to make this as spoiler free as possible, although I might have to mention a few events from the previous books. As you can tell by the title, this installment features Valencia’s baby Lucia—who isn’t really a baby anymore—and Hart does a brilliant job of using her to create some very funny situations.
The story picks up three years after the ending of The Medusa Protocol. The members of Assassins Anonymous—Mark, Astrid, Booker, and Valencia, all former assassins, CIA operatives and spies, who have decided to leave their old lives behind and stop killing—are gathering for their weekly AA meeting in the very secure basement of the Church of St. Jude in Chelsea, New York. Everything seems to be status quo, until Valencia finds out that her brother is in trouble. She has no choice but to help him, and so she decides to leave little three-year-old Lucia in the capable hands of her friends for a few days.
At the same time, Mark gets a disturbing text from an old adversary and must drop everything to meet with her. This leaves Astrid and Booker to watch over Lucia, who suddenly comes down with a high fever. The two panic and take her to urgent care, but a series of misunderstandings and bumbling explanations put them in hot water—the hospital staff thinks Lucia has been kidnapped—and from there, Astrid and Booker must figure out how to evade the police and keep Lucia safe. Not to mention the fact that Valencia will kill them if anything happens to her.
That’s the set-up in a nutshell, and the rest of the story is full of hijinks, evading the police, near misses and very dangerous situations. It’s worth mentioning that although the characters have committed to turning their lives around, each one is still a wanted man or woman, which is why many of them use fake names and try to stay under the radar as much as possible. Mark in particular was one of the most dangerous assassins in the world when he was working for the Agency. Known as the Pale Horse, he not only has a reputation as a brutal killer, but he’s sort of famous for it in certain circles. Getting caught by one of the many organizations who are after them (including a group of deadly Russian mobsters) could be devastating for their loved ones, who end up being used as bargaining chips in the story.
If you love tech toys and spy gear, you’ll have a blast with this series. Mark has not only rigged the church basement with a high tech security system, but he has a safe house that no one knows about but him. You might wonder how a group of ex-assassins, who still find themselves in dangerous situations, manage to avoid killing but are still able to best the bad guys. Hart comes up with some awesome scenarios that explain just this, including a stash of non lethal but very effective weapons that they have at their disposal. One of my favorite parts of the story is when the gang is suiting up for a showdown and choosing their weapons, arguing over who gets to the use the large target net gun or the flash-bang grenades, lol.
One of the series’ strongest elements is the humor. Hart perfectly melds life-and-death situations with laugh-out-loud dialog, striking the perfect balance and creating a multilayered story that was not only entertaining but emotionally satisfying as well. Each character has a nicely developed backstory, what made them become assassins in the first place and what happened to change that—and if you read the first two books you’ll understand their motivations—and this makes Hart’s assassins extremely relatable and sympathetic. Mark has killed hundreds (if not thousands) of people, and yet the reader is rooting for him to make it out alive.
If you haven’t started this series, please go back and read Assassins Anonymous and The Medusa Protocol before you pick up Three Hitmen and a Baby, although Hart does include some brief sections that will catch up new readers. If I have any complaints about this book, it’s that I didn’t think these recaps were necessary. I understand that the publisher is trying to hook new readers by making book three easy to jump into, but rehashing the “twelve steps” of AA and revisiting Astrid’s emotional journey, which was the focus of The Medusa Protocol, made me roll my eyes. You will miss so much by starting this book first, trust me.
The final showdown is tense and thrilling, and both Mark and Astid have a couple of heartbreaking decisions to make at the end. It seems that Hart wrapped everything up—I absolutely loved the way Three Hitmen and a Baby ended! However, I can’t help but think there’s also a bit of a possible lead-in to the next book, if indeed the author has one planned. I swear I’ll never get tired of these characters and their crazy lives, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for more.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
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