If you are looking for an offbeat series that combines thrills, kills and dark humor, while holding up a magnifying glass to the deeply clandestine role of a hired killer, then Rob Hart’s wonderfully entertaining Assassins Anonymous series is for you. The third and latest installment is THREE HITMEN AND A BABY, a title that I am sure Hart conceived of with tongue firmly in cheek.

Mark is the leader of the Assassins Anonymous meetings, which provide a safe place for current and former hitmen seeking to leave the life or just commiserate about their prior experiences and new challenges trying to make it in the real world. He was once known as The Pale Horse, an internationally recognized hitman of serious renown who is now struggling to stay clean of killing.

"THREE HITMEN AND A BABY is pure entertainment and can be enjoyed on its own without having read the prior entries in the series."

Two of Mark's protégés and mentees, Astrid and Booker, are offered the opportunity to care for Lucia, the toddler daughter of fellow group member Valencia, who gets called away after being notified that her brother has gone missing. You would think that three adults watching a child would be an easy assignment. You would be wrong. First, Mark somehow gets pulled back into a deadly war with the Russian mob in New York City, which might lead him to break his personal rule of no killing. That leaves the troubled Astrid, who is still stinging from her own mentee being killed under her watch in the previous novel, and Booker, who is not comfortable around babies, to hold down the fort. 

Lucia ends up getting very sick after being put down to sleep. No one knows what to do, and since Valencia is unreachable, Astrid and Booker take her to the emergency room. Unfortunately, they do not know the child’s legal last name, they don’t have a birth certificate or proof of any family relationship, and they lack medical coverage. But they made the right decision bringing her in because she has a fever of 103.

Once Lucia gets out of treatment and her temperature drops, security and law enforcement are called as it is believed that Astrid and Booker are either kidnappers or child traffickers. They cannot afford to be brought into custody, so they grab Lucia and head out on an adventure that is intensely suspenseful and at times laugh-out-loud funny.

Meanwhile, Mark survives his initial skirmish with the Russians but now learns that they are targeting his ex-girlfriend and son. So he ushers them off to a cabin in upstate New York that has a serious security system. Believing they will be safe there, he can help Astrid and Booker evade the authorities and continue to keep Lucia safe until Valencia returns.

Unfortunately, Mark gets word that his family’s cover has been blown, and the Russians are about to grab them. He wants to take care of this on his own, but Astrid, Booker and a few others from their group will not let him do that. So they all head to the deep woods of upstate New York for a memorable showdown with some really bad killers.

THREE HITMEN AND A BABY is pure entertainment and can be enjoyed on its own without having read the prior entries in the series. If that’s the case, I can only hope that you will pick up ASSASSINS ANONYMOUS and THE MEDUSA PROTOCOL once you have finished this summer delight.