Mark (aka Pale Horse) is an assassin trying to go straight. He finds a recovery group, Assassins Anonymous, to help him not give into his urges to kill people. When a Russia henchman tracks him down, he must go on the run. When his identity is made public and with pressure to kill to defend himself, Mark is not sure he can stay on the straight and narrow.

This book was a fun mix of action and humor. If you liked Killers of a Certain Age or Hench, this book is for you. It was a quick read and had some moments of great writing, but the premise is more memorable than the actual book. I enjoyed this and would be a good suggestion for those that want a little different action book.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

I have been a big fan of the author's work.

This is an interesting take on the good old "assassin being the target" story that many have done in the past. The pacing is quick though there are some glaring plot holes but still a good thriller overall.

A book deserving of its bestseller status. I've been a loyal reader of Rob Hart since the early days. Rob has a unique voice in modern literature. It feels tough and badass while still challenging what's happening in the world. Assassins Anonymous is truly an achievement.

What an interesting take on an assassin's way of life.

The author examines the life of an assassin by depicting him in the presence and the past.

Mark is no longer killing. He is in a support group of people who were killers in their past. They use the Alcoholics Anonymous credo. He is almost to his 1 year chip when he is brutally attacked.

He manages to hurt the attacker and not kill. But he soon realizes someone is out to get him and his friends. He begins a international and national search for answers all the while fighting his urges to kill.

Fascinating concept and the plot is tight and well done. Not once did I have an inkling of what was going to happen next.

This is definitely a unique take on a thriller. A book about an assassin who no longer wants to be in the assassination game. Mark joins a 12 step program but only makes it to one meeting before his idea of retirement is shattered. This was an expertly written novel with a lot of action trying to find who wanted him dead. Looking forward to the next unique thriller by Rob Hart. Well done!

Mark, aka the Pale Horse, is trying to leave behind his life as one of the world's most notorious assassins. But it's not as easy as he thought. He has to travel the globe to escape from being killed and find out just who is after him. This action-packed book has a wonderfully complex protagonist. Mark consistently wows the reader with his technical expertise, and his sense of humor leads to some laugh-out-loud moments. But he very much struggles with the psychological toll his past takes on him, where as an assassin he killed for the (theoretically) greater good of preventing hypothetical deaths while seeing an actual dead body in front of him. And his efforts to reform by joining an AA-like group for assassins and adopting a cat are endearing.

The nitty-gritty: Rob Hart delivers a thrilling assassin story with heart, humor and unforgettable characters.

Who knew that a story about a deadly assassin who is trying to quit killing people would turn out to be one of my favorite books of the year? Assassins Anonymous surprised me in every possible way, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. This book has the whole package: perfect pacing, warmth and heart, hysterically funny dialog, nail-biting action, lovable characters and even some nice messages about recovery and staying true to yourself. I’ve read two of Rob Hart’s previous books and I can say without a doubt this is his best yet.

Mark used to be a notorious assassin known as the Pale Rider, but for the past year he’s been going to weekly AA meetings—Assassins Anonymous—after a terrible event forced him to reevaluate his job as an assassin. With the help of his sponsor Kenji, a retired assassin himself, Mark is days away from earning his one year chip. But one evening after a meeting, he’s viciously attacked by a Russian thug, who ends up stabbing him, grabbing his private journal (with all kinds of notes about his jobs) and running away.

Who is the Russian and why has Mark been targeted? With the help of a woman named Astrid, one of his contacts from the old days, Mark knows his only option is to figure out how to get the Russian off his back and find out who sent him—without killing anyone.

I have to admit, the premise of Assassins Anonymous sounded a little goofy to me at first. I mean, assassins going to AA meetings? But trust me, there’s nothing goofy about it. The story is told in first person from Mark’s point of view, and right away you get a feel for who he is. At first he seems like just a regular nice guy: he’s got a cat named P. Kitty that he loves unconditionally, he takes out his elderly neighbor’s trash, and he faithfully attends his AA meetings. But underneath, Mark is still the Pale Rider, although he’s doing his best to escape that persona. Hart fills in the blanks of Mark’s assassin years through flashbacks that hit key moments of his life, and not surprisingly, these flashbacks were some of the most emotional scenes in the book.

Mark goes through quite a lot in this story, and it was nice to see his character grow and change along the way. Once you learn the devastating story of why he wants to quit killing people, you’ll probably tear up just like I did. He can turn on the Pale Rider when needed, but otherwise he’s completely human and relatable. I especially loved his cat P. Kitty (great name, right?), who winds up going to Singapore with Mark and Astrid to track down information about the Russian. (And yes, one of the flashbacks explains how he came to acquire P. Kitty) And while Mark finds himself all of a sudden back in the game, he’s determined to stick to the twelve steps of AA and must find other ways to outwit the bad guys besides killing them.

All of the other characters are fantastic as well. Kenji is the wise, older ex-assassin who is guiding Mark on his recovery journey, and he reminded me a lot of Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid. Astrid may or may not be a love interest for Mark, but she turns out to be much more than she appears on the surface, I loved her a lot. Ravi is the guy who recruits Mark in the first place and gives him the name Pale Rider. Even the other ex-assassins in the recovery group were a lot of fun. Hart has lots of surprise twists when it comes to the characters, so you can’t really take anyone at face value.

The action and pacing were spot on. It’s rare to find a story with such a perfect balance of action sequences and quieter moments of introspection, but Hart nailed it. You want a fast-paced story about assassins? This book does not disappoint. Mark gets himself into a boatload of trouble, and it just gets worse as the story progresses, not to mention that the flashbacks are just as action packed and tense. All this action is interspersed with heartfelt moments to remind you that these characters are indeed human, no matter how many ways they can kill someone. 

And I have to mention the humor, which made me laugh out loud at times. There are a few running jokes throughout the story, like when people keep comparing Mark to John Wick and Jason Statham. I love this type of tongue-in-cheek humor, and Hart’s dialog is so well done. There’s one particularly funny scene that takes place in Singapore when Mark decides to make amends (one of the twelve steps) to the son of someone he once killed, and OMG it was the best!

Hart has already optioned the movie rights to Assassins Anonymous (fingers crossed the movie actually gets made!), which doesn’t surprise me at all, because it has “blockbuster action movie with heart” written all over it. Seriously, read this book, you’ll thank me later.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

A 12 step program for Assassins? Yes please. This was a highly engrossing read that I breezed through in a couple of hours. I hope there's a sequel!

The title of the book is pretty much what you’re getting with this book. Think Alcoholics Anonymous but for assassins trying to turn over a new leader and leave their life of blood shed in the past. But as you can imagine, when you have such a dark past, it has a tendency of biting you in the butt.
We meet Mark. Mark was the most dangerous killer-for-hire in the world. He’s been out of the game for 6 months.
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.
Overall I was really enjoying this book. It was fast paced, an easy read and had me interested from page one.
Unfortunately I ran out of time to read it at the 60% mark. So I wasn’t able to finish it.
But going based on what i read I’m sure I would have ended up enjoying it.
If you like movies like John Wick and Die Hard you’ll like this book.

Thanks to the folks at NetGalley for a copy of this book. My review is a honest reflection of my feelings towards this book.

A reformed assassin named Mark? Come on, that's brilliant. Mark is now the mark and rushing to figure out who put the target on his back before any more people can get hurt--especially him. I really hope Rob Hart turns this into a series because I definitely want more. The book is just fun while also incredibly poignant and sometimes profound. A great summer read.

Let's get the obvious out of the way, this book contains murder and violence and such. Because assassins. Even ones who are trying to change their murdery ways. First of all, the premise is kind of genius: a group of folks who are trying to reform themselves from their lives of murder, but the Assassin Life™ is not willing to let them go so easily. Mark is really trying. He goes to his meetings, he has a sponsor. He just wants to live a normal life.

But... someone attacks Mark, and attacks him bad. Which leads him back into the life he's been so desperate to leave. Thing is though, Mark has quite a few... shall we say, talents?

So sure enough, he's swept back into the life, because sometimes it's kill or be killed, right? And he is trying to do the right thing, but as he chases clues, literally around the world, he knows that it won't be so easy to hold his ground. The premise is just perfect, because even though you know Mark has done Some Stuff in his past, the fact that he is trying so earnestly to do better makes you like him, even if he is maybe one of the best killers on the planet. And there is a lot that Mark is going to have to unravel- his brain, in this case, is just as vital as his proverbial sword.

I could not put this book down, both because I was engrossed in the mystery, and because I was rooting so hard for Mark and everyone else who wanted to be reformed. There were so many great twists, but also, the characters were fabulous, which is something I did not expect from a book about literal mass murderers.

Bottom Line: Brilliant premise and equally great execution- pun absolutely intended.

Do you like John Wick? I love John Wick. And James Bond. -- not that REAL assassins are anything like John Wick. Or 007... But -- if you do like John Wick and James Bond, then I think you will love this book.
What if you were an assassin working for a covert government agency and you decided you had had enough - you want out. But you've sort of become addicted to the feeling of omnipotence that comes along with assassination. You join AA, of course. But this is Assassins Anonymous. Which is where Mark finds himself after he messes up big time. And then - he is betrayed. And wounded. And on the run - but he isn't quite sure who he's running from.
I thought I had this figured out a couple of times and I was wrong. So there were a lot of surprises for me! It was quite enjoyable and once you are about 2/3 in - pretty hard to put down.
And for all you cat lovers our there -- P. Kitty is pretty fantastic.
Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for a digital ARC!

Mark is a retired assassin. What does a retired assassin do when you want to talk about your previous job and deal with the trauma of it? You join Assassins Anonymous. Holding some beliefs like Alcoholics Anonymous, such as steps to work through, it helps assassins work through what they dealt with in their previous life. No names are shared that you used on the job, but stories are shared. One night after a meeting, Mark is attacked. He doesn't know who did it besides it's a Russian. He's quickly on the hunt to determine who is trying to kill him. Will this lead him to lose his one year of no killing or will he be the one who's killed?

The synopsis for this book sounded extremely interesting. For me it fell flat at parts. Personally my favorite part were the flashbacks to jobs done while working as a killer, whether it be stories shared during meetings or in Mark's own flashbacks. I guessed most of the twists, but was surprised by the main twist at the end. I don't know if there was enough foundation set for it to be a real "WOW" moment. With Mark being the central focus of the novel, it didn't feel like a lot of the secondary characters were as fleshed out to help drive the narrative forward. This hinders further storylines involving those characters as the book progresses.

Thank you to Putnam Books and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for review consideration.

When the world’s most feared assassin decides that he has had enough can he just stop killing? With the help of a twelve step program for former killers, Mark hopes to have a normal life. Just shy of his first full year without a killing, he is attacked and left for dead by a Russian assassin. Mark survives the attack but the Russian is still tracking him. From New York to Singapore and London Mark searches for the identity of his attacker and who he is working for. In Singapore he makes contact with his former controller, who wants him back in action in exchange for answers. Mark was known as Pale Horse, a person to be feared. Now he has to find a way to stay alive without killing anyone, fighting the instincts that made him so successful.

Rob Hart’s Assassins Anonymous is a true page turner. There is almost constant action and the people in Mark’s life can not be trusted. When Mark was at his lowest and contemplated ending it all he was saved by a stray cat. Now P. Kitty is his constant companion as he dodges traps and searches for answers. Hart also brings humor to his story. People always picture Jason Statham as an assassin and Mark does not fit that mold. Hart also provides a romance that ends tragically, leaving Mark devastated. This is Rob Hart at his best. I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for providing this book.

Mark’s in a recovery program, for assassins. He’s on his way to his one year clean when he’s attacked and goes on the run. He is trying to figure out who is trying to kill him, all while trying not to be killed and without using lethal force. Can he pull it off?


What a fun and fast-paced thriller. This was such a fun premise. I wouldn’t think of a support group for assassins, I have so many questions, but somehow it worked. The program was molded off another very popular 12 step program and it works similarly. I enjoyed how funny this book was. I think the humor brought some much-needed levity to the pages. I loved how the assassins were portrayed. Since they’re in recovery, they use non-lethal approaches to try to figure out what was going on but there was plenty of blood to go around. Quite interesting. This is one that would make a great movie and I would sign up to watch it It was great getting the flashbacks into Mark’s past, it really helped add some depth to his character.

Can a former hitman avoid whoever is trying to kill him without re-entering his old world?

Mark was recruited out of the military to join a group known as the Agency and utilize the deadly skills he had employed there in new ways. His moniker became the Pale Horse, an apt name given the level of his lethality. He killed people who were doing bad things that would result in the death of many others, so for him it was a question of math….one death preventing the death of hundreds, even thousands, was surely a righteous thing. But not all of his assignments were that clear cut, and when his way of life impacts the woman with whom he has fallen in love, he knows things have to change. It turns out that there is a twelve-step program for reformed killers, and when Mark reaches out to Kenji, a former killer for the Yakuza with whom he had crossed paths on an earlier assignment, he finds a group of former killers like himself that are staying away from their former lethal ways one day at a time. But just before he reaches the one year mark without having taken a life, Mark is ambushed by someone who knows exactly who he was and what he did and who leaves him for dead. He makes it back to his apartment only to find it in flames, and instead detours to the apartment of a former doctor named Astrid whose black market medical services he has used in the past. She patches him up but becomes herself a target of whoever has targeted him. Reaching out to his former handler, Ravi, gains him no information but puts him back on the Agency’s radar (they are not an employer known for their retirement plans, after all). Traveling from Singapore to London and back to New York, Mark struggles to identify which of the many people who might want the Pale Horse dead is pulling the strings, all without unleashing the full arsenal of his lethal talents. Can he put an end to this campaign to end his life without slipping back into his prior actions? Who amongst his friends can be trusted? Can a recovering killer ever leave that life permanently behind?
Having been a big fan of Rob Hart’s previous novel, The Warehouse, I found this new offering to be an intriguing premise and a page-turner of a thriller, one which should appeal to readers of Mark Greaney’s Grey Man series, Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X books, and Charles Cumming’s Box 88 novels. In Mark we have a protagonist who was only ever really good at one thing, and that was killing others without losing his own life in the process. When he thinks he has found someone with whom he can create a “normal” life, he ends up bringing the darkness of his world into the life of that person. His first choice is to end his life, but is persuaded to join Kenzi’s recovery group, and he learns that each day he can choose not to kill. But when his life and that of others close to him are in peril, what is the right action to take? Is it more important to adhere to his commitment to non-lethality, or to ensure his own survival and that of others in his life by whatever means necessary? His fellow former killers each have their own stories, but while they have been willing to help him on his journey away from killing, is it fair to expose them to dangers that may tempt them to relapse too? With plot twists and the details of just what happened to send Mark away from the life of an assassin, Assassins Anonymous was a quick and addictive read. Many thanks to NetGalley and G P Putnam’s Sons for allowing me early access to Rob Hart’s latest.

I really enjoyed this. Rob Hart’s writing really spans genres, although there is always a mystery and thrill. I think I’ve read all his books and enjoyed them, most recently Paradox Hotel.

Retire assassins seems to be a theme lately but this is the first one that has been based around the AA program that I’ve read and it works nicely. Good resolution that I’d didn’t entirely see coming and interesting characters. What more do you need?

Thank you to Netgalley & Penguin Random House Audio Influencer Program for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

What a clever and unique book! The best way to describe this is if John Wick decided to retire and attend support group meetings with other Assassins! SO FUN!

This was very well-written - I had the print and audio versions but decided to listen to the audiobook while I was cleaning and reorganizing my closet. And I ended up finishing this book in one day!

This is my first Rob Hart book and I really appreciated how he wrote these quirky & interesting characters. You definitely have to suspend a little disbelief in this one but the image of a bunch of assassins sitting together with coffee and donuts in a support group - similar to AA - and discussing their past and making lists of people they need to apologize to just was amazing.

I have heard that if you loved Hench, you will love this one - and I understand the comparison but I actually much preferred this one. The alternating timelines were great to get a view into our main character's (Mark) past and how he became a famous and feared assassin and then the current timeline where he is trying to figure out who is after him. And deciding if he is going to have to break his 1 year of not killing anyone to survive.

Side note: The pop culture reference especially regarding Jason Statham made me literally laugh out loud.

A recovery group for assassins? Count me in. Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart takes a different look at the killer-for-hire genre.

"Mark is the most feared and ruthless assassin in the world. Everyone is afraid of the Pale Horse. But he realizes that spending all his time with assassinations leaves him feeling empty. So he joins a twelve-step group for reformed killers. After one meeting, he is attacked. He gets away but now he has to figure out who's trying to kill him without killing anyone. Nonviolence can be such a hassle."

I love Rob Hart's imagination. Being inside an assassin's head while he's trying to turn over a new leaf is interesting and entertaining. Mark travels from NYC to Singapore to London, looking for who wants him dead. Big surprise to him as well as who some of his colleagues really are. Lots of action in this one but there's humor - because MArk is struggling with who he thinks he is versus who he wants to be. It's a constant struggle.

I like the surprises near the end. Great new story from Hart. Great pick if you're looking for a wildly entertaining. original story.

Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart was an action packed story.
I enjoyed reading this book.

Thank You NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!