Review by Sadonna
TITLE: The Hitman’s Guide to Stately Fences and Killer Defenses
SERIES: The Hitman’s Guide
AUTHOR: Alice Winters
NARRATOR: Michael Ferraiuolo
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 9 hours and 28 minutes
RELEASE DATE: January 20, 2026
BLURB:
Leland
Life is normal…suspiciously normal.
During my long, lonely years as a hitman, I never realized that one day, I would have a family to call my own.
Now, instead of stalking my targets and taking down people with a flick of my wrist, my specialties lie in things like planning sleepovers (why does Waylon look terrified?), The Fence hour (those are screams of joy), and involving others to help our child succeed (no, of course I didn’t abduct anyone).
But for a guy like me, things can’t stay good for too long. Someone seems to think that I should still be the ruthless hitman I used to be. They want to draw me back into the limelight and prove to me that what I’m living now is a lie.
But they don’t realize how much they’re going to regret meeting the Sandman–especially once they threatened my family.
Jackson
This person seems to be obsessed with an image of Leland from the past, and because of it, we now have a crime boss on our tail and a bounty on Leland’s head. The stalker has no idea that Leland comes with multiple ex-assassins, a sketchy Scotsman, and the chief of police who likes to pretend he doesn’t want to be involved.
I adore my life with Leland just the way it is (someone, please burn down The Fence), and no one is going to ruin that (I will pay well).
They’d better be afraid to sleep because the Sandman is coming (and if they took down The Fence while they were at it, I wouldn’t mind).
REVIEW:
Note: This is the eighth book in this series 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 enjoying their life with their “son” Waylon. Waylon has a new friend, Cam,. that he invites to stay over while his parents are having a party. When they return Cam and go in to meet the parents, things get weird. Leland manages to defuse that situation, but he’s worried about Waylon since something is amiss with Cam’s family.
When Waylon and Cam are followed and a distress call comes to Leland, he and Jackson take off to find him. Pretty soon the whole gang is involved – Jeremy and Cassel, Tavish, Ellis, Micah, Everly and Henry are all involved. Turns out a very bad family is trying to lure the Sandman back into his old life. But are they? There seem to be more players than Leland can account for. And then no matter where he goes, someone is trying to kill him.
Hmmmm. What the heck is going on here? How can Leland keep his husband and his son safe when he’s being set up at every turn?? He’s not going back to that life, but how can he stop the person who is setting him up??
It’s always a good day when Alice Winters and Michael Ferraiuolo collaborate on another Hitman’s Guide story 🙂 Leland and Jackson and now their “child” Waylon manage to get into trouble without even trying! I loved Waylon and how he’s sort of “settled in” with Leland and Jackson. Leland’s brand of “parenting” is hilarious and Waylon is learning to roll with it. He’s also figuring out how to push Leland’s buttons a bit too 🙂 Thank goodness for Jackson trying to reel Leland in from his most hairbrained ideas. Leland is put in so many dangerous positions in this one and the would be bad guy is definitely trying to manipulate Leland back into his old life. But Leland has truly changed. Lucas gets a few jabs in too but Leland is determined to take care of his family and friends and he’ll do anything to protect them. Jackson has to keep convincing him that he is no longer alone and that he needs to let his husband and his friends help him. There are many close calls and I’m sure these adventures are not over. Added bonus of new songs from Leland preformed by Mr. Ferraiuolo. The performance of this story is absolutely “chef’s kiss”. This ragtag bunch of unlikely friends/co-conspirators/found family continue to bring a lot of humor and banter to the table. The consistently amusing accents, the infighting, the teasing, and certainly the singing, add so much to this series. We’re 8 books in and I hope it never ends! Leland and his adventures can just continue forever as far as I’m concerned. Highly entertaining with a great balance of action, suspense, humor and emotion. Another winner from Alice Winters. Highly recommended.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
