Review by Sadonna

TITLE:  The Former Assassin’s Guide to Righting Wrongs and Causing Mayhem

SERIES:  The Hitman’s Guide

AUTHOR:  Alice Winters

NARRATOR:  Michael Ferraiuolo

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  9 hours and 43 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  April 21, 2022

BLURB:

Leland

Growing up, I was taught that getting too close to someone would be my downfall. But I’ve proven that wrong now that I’m happily married to Jackson, the greatest man in the world. The issue is that mayhem always seems to find me (which is definitely not my fault), and this time, it comes in the form of a woman looking for her daughter. What starts as a simple missing persons case turns into so much more, forcing me to rely on my found family and others, including a muscly “bear” who will definitely not whisk away my husband with his irritatingly sexy accent—I mean, yes, I’m very focused on this case…. Jackson, don’t look at me like that.

Jackson

While Leland is “code potatoing” (whatever that means on his strange cheat sheet), I’m left questioning what he’s gotten himself into this time. At least he’s willing to let me assist him, even if he’s still positive that I should just “sit pretty” and let him handle everything. But with the girl missing, he knows we need to work together to determine whose game we’re playing because not everything is as it seems. Of course, when one gets involved with Leland, nothing is ever simple. But maybe that’s just the way I like it.

Contains: speed walking up way too many stairs while holding pointy objects, feel-better cookies that didn’t turn out quite right, Spanish that definitely isn’t Spanish, and lots of long-suffering people being swept up in Leland’s shenanigans once more.

REVIEW:

Note:  This is the fourth book in this series (fifth if you count Cassel’s spin-off book) and as such contains major spoilers for all of the previous books.  in addition, this really can’t be read as a standalone – it just won’t make much sense 😉

Leland and Jackson are back!  It’s the holidays and Jackson and Leland are getting ready for it – shopping for gifts, getting ready for traditional festivities at Jackson’s parents house (much to Leland’s chagrin), etc.  But then Leland is ‘abducted’ but a woman from his past – although he has trouble placing her immediately.  She says he owes her, knows who he is and if he doesn’t help her, he’s going to regret it.  And she’s got her eye on Jackson.  This thing she knows about is something that happened when he was a teenager being groomed by Lucas.  He goes to see Lucas, but that just seems to make things worse.  And so Jackson and Leland agree to help this woman find her daughter.

All is not as it seems as the closer they get to locating the missing daughter, the more convoluted the whole scenario gets.  Who was helping her?  Why has she stayed away so long?   Is she being held against her will?  The clues they uncover seem to lead to a one step forward, two steps back.  Of course they call in reinforcements in the form of Cassel, Jeremy and Henry.  It seems like there are too many potential bad guys and who should they trust?  They still don’t know where the girl is and when things go south with the woman who hired them and Lucas continues to try to manipulate Leland, well it seems they are no closer to solving the mystery and locating the missing girl.

On top of trying to find a missing person when people are trying to kill them, it’s Christmas time and there are celebrations to be had.  Leland and Christmas are an extremely odd and entertaining combination.  He has no clue what to make of a family Christmas and he and Ava have reached detente of sorts.  All that goes down the tubes when it seems that there con on top of con on top of con and Leland and Jackson are going to have to pull out all the stops to save their loved ones from the real puppet master of this scheme.

I will never ever tire of Leland and Jackson.  Or the Fence.  Or Cassel and Henry and Jerebear. I confess that I have only listened to the audios of these books and if you haven’t done so, I heartily recommend you do so.  Michael Ferraiuolo’s masterful performance and comedic turns make this entire series a real audio treat.  Leland’s singing and Jackson and Leland’s attempts at porn acting alone are totally worth the price of admission.  I was listening to those scenes on my commute home and I think I scared people with how loud I was laughing 😀

There are a lot of secondary characters in this book – both new and old.  It takes place at the holidays, so Jackson’s family of course figure large.  Ava is her usual badass self and both the writing and the narration made me love her even more 😉  The bad guys – and believe me it’s really confusing as to who they actually are in this one, are varies but distinct.  There’s even a Scottish bloke who teases Leland merciless and lusts after Jackson 😛  I love Michael’s Scottish accent, so thanks for that treat Ms. Winters!  There are a lot of red herrings in the mystery and it did little a bit confusing as to who was working with/against who (as intended) which made the whole resolution that much better when the truth is finally revealed.

I just love these characters and this series.  Leland always brings his own brand of crazy into the mix and Jackson’s indulgence is just as amusing.  Henry’s befuddled disbelief that he keeps getting into these situations with them is also on point.  Cassel and Leland’s rivalry is as fierce as ever and the source of much humor and drama.  If you are a fan of this series, I predict that this book will keep you laughing and engaged throughout.  Highly recommended for a rocking good holiday yarn with favorite characters managed to get in and out of trouble as usual.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

Audible