Three Hitmen and a Baby: An Assassins Anonymous Novel

Hart’s excellent third nail-biter focused on Mark, a former assassin known as Pale Horse (after The Medusa Protocol), nimbly balances humor with genuine suspense. Valencia, a member of Mark’s Manhattan-based support group for recovering contract killers, needs childcare while she heads to L.A. to track down her missing brother. Mark ends up babysitting her daughter, Lucia, with the help of fellow retired guns Astrid and Booker. They get more than they bargained for when the two-year-old runs a fever and their trip to the hospital generates suspicion, given that the babysitters don’t know Lucia’s last name and are using false identities. Mark, meanwhile, faces a separate dilemma: Russian mobster Ulyana Semenov has asked him to kill Astrid, who’s become his protégé. If Mark refuses, Ulyana says, she’ll take out his ex-girlfriend Sara and the son she and Mark conceived together. Hart’s ability to generate sympathy for characters with so much blood on their hands remains impressive, as does his ability to match laughs with gasps. This killer series continues to balance thrills and heart like few others. Agent: Josh Getzler, HG Literary. (June)