ROB HART'S PAGE: The Assassins Anonymous series one and two

ASSASSINS ANONYMOUS (Assassins Anonymous #1)
ROB HART
G.P. Putnam's Sons (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$12.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: In this clever, surprising, page-turner, the world’s most lethal assassin gives up the violent life only to find himself under siege by mysterious assailants. It’s a kill-or-be-killed situation, but the first option is off the table. What’s a reformed hit man to do?

Mark was the most dangerous killer-for-hire in the world. But after learning the hard way that his life’s work made him more monster than man, he left all of that behind, and joined a twelve-step group for reformed killers.

When Mark is viciously attacked by an unknown assailant, he is forced on the run. From New York to Singapore to London, he chases after clues while dodging attacks and trying to solve the puzzle of who’s after him. All without killing anyone. Or getting killed himself. For an assassin, Mark learns, nonviolence is a real hassle.

I CHECKED THIS BOOK OUT OF MY LOCAL LIBRARY. USE THEIR SERVICES OFTEN, THEY NEED US!

My Review: A support group for assassins trying to get, and stay, clean. Self-consciously in the mold of pop-culture phenom John Wick, it goes into details that read as bloody, as twisty and twisted, as that franchise's visuals.

The idea of the reluctant assassin or killer is, it seems to me, evergreen and always uncomfortably celebratory of the killing part. Mark, our PoV recoveree, is the victim of his own former life's violence. It starts him on a journey that MUST be taken...no assassin leaves a job undone, so this attempt while unsuccessful heralds more to come...while he does his best to stay clean, not killing anyone on his way to both a resolution of the assassination contract on him and earning his one-year-clean chip. This time. Not his first try at going clean.

Harder now of course. The assassination must logically be connected to one of his past successes, so reliving those and thus reinforcing his skills and so his addiction to killing...well, the set-up is tailor made for twenty-first century storytelling tastes.

I tried to get into book two, The Medusa Protocol, but really kept losing the thread and the desire to keep hunting it. Clearly I needed to get this first book in the series. It was a good decision...Mark as the recoveree explains much about that story...and his trajectory is a great deal more satisfying in this read knowing what I know now. (Sorry, though, I'm too scared of the Spoiler Stasi's shrieking outrage to tell you why. The review is below. Read it at your own risk. I take no responsibility for your actions.)

It's like reading a native Kotaro Isaka writing a similar series. I enjoyed the bootstrapping recovery group gag enough to give this read a whole star more than the translated ones.

Maybe twenty years and a country change matter more than I thought.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

THE MEDUSA PROTOCOL
ROB HART
G.P. Putnam's Sons (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$14.99 ebook, available to preorder, delivery tomorrow

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Welcome back to Assassins Anonymous, the only twelve-step group where joining can be deadly.

When Astrid, known in her assassin days as Azrael, stopped showing up to Assassins Anonymous, the group assumed her past had caught up with her. Only her sponsor Mark, formerly the deadliest killer in the world, holds out hope that she’s okay. Then, during a meeting, the group gets a sign, or rather, a pizza delivery. Is there another psychopath out there who actually likes olives on their pizza, or is Astrid trying to send Mark a message?

Meanwhile, Astrid wakes up in the cell of a black site prison, on a remote island. A doctor subjects her to mysterious experiments, plumbing the depths of her memory and looking for a vital clue from her past. She’ll do anything to escape, except…killing anyone. Hmm. Turns out it’s not easy to blow this joint without blowing anything, or anyone up.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: I too like olives on my pizza. Green ones. Go Astrid!

Again a story with lots of flashbacks to the triumphs of the assassin's past, only this time it's embedded in alternating PoVs of Astrid, and Mark from book one; it sounds like it should be confusing but Author Hart is very explicit about the changes between the varying frames of reference. Thank goodness for that! There are also a lot of spoilers for Assassins Anonymous, so don't read them out of order. Astrid's career as an assassin wasn't as interesting to me as Mark's was. I'm no longer fresh to the idea, so that was inevitable.

This read is a lot more about the sense of found family, of a genuine loving community, formed under these truly unique pressures and these impossible-to-share life experiences. I really found that facet of the story very relatable and quite moving. The family Astrid and Mark share is so powerfully bound that they risk everything to help one of their own out of a threatening situation...and redouble their efforts when they learn how bad it really is.

This statement is deeply profound, and both useful and insightful in this time of increasingly-prevalent found families:

“You know that saying, blood is thicker than water? It’s a misinterpretation. The full saying is: The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. It means that the blood you choose is thicker than the blood you’re born with. The point is, family isn’t blood, it’s who you bleed for.”

Astrid, the character developed in the flashbacks and the one enduring a deeply unpleasant present, comes across as someone you'll believe the found family of Assassins Anonymous will risk this much to rescue. It could easily, absent those moments where she's really working her program, been very much otherwise.

Solid job, Author Hart. You've cemented this series on place on my "read soonest" list.