The Medusa Protocol by Rob Hart – Review

Published: June 24, 2025

Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Series: Assassins Anonymous #2

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 320 (Kindle)

My Rating: 4 Stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
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.

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I’m delighted to return to the world of Assassins Anonymous, which was one of my favorite books of 2024! The Medusa Protocol follows Astrid, the reformed (or reforming) assassin formerly known as Azrael. Much like with Mark’s journey in Assassins Anonymous, Astrid’s past is catching up with her and it’s difficult to avoid the lifestyle of a killer when people come looking for you.

Astrid is captured and hauled off to some sort of black site prison where she’s drugged and interrogated. The purpose and goal is unknown – it could be anyone when you have as many enemies as her. Mark and Booker decide to find Astrid and break her out when they receive a subtle message that she is alive. The subtle message being a delivery of her preferred pizza order to one of the AA meetings. What follows is a rather exciting dual POV adventure that kept me on the edge of my seat. We bounce back and forth between Astrid’s time in the prison and her past, thus revealing Azrael’s origin and why Astrid decided to drop that moniker and leave her old life behind. The reader also gets quite the adventure following Mark and Booker as they track down Astrid and non-lethally take on enemies of their own.

The Medusa Protocol has some incredibly fun action sequences and emotional moments, but I felt like the impact wasn’t quite as deep as with Assassins Anonymous. Don’t get me wrong – Astrid has a sad story and what led her to dropping the life was a tragedy, but Mark’s was definitely more heartrending. Now, in real life I would say not to compare one person’s pain to another as each is valid, but this is fiction and I’m reviewing a book and the impact to me the reader was just not on the same level. The action bits were super fun though and I liked the scenes in the prison once Astrid is put amongst the general population. 

Overall, The Medusa Protocol turned out to be a good sequel that was just as fun as the first, though didn’t quite give me the emotional gut punch I would have hoped for. I also seriously missed P. Kitty (who’s name has not aged well) though he did get a teensy bit of page time. I would definitely read another book set in this world following any one of the other characters in the Assassins Anonymous group, though I’ll be honest I hope Valencia can just live her life in peace because anything otherwise would stress me out.