Title: Entry Wounds
Author: Brandon McNulty
Publisher: Midnight Point Press
Pages: 362
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I was intrigued by the premise of this book. A cursed gun that fuses itself to your hand the moment you touch it and doesn’t let go till you have killed six people.
Ken Fujima, a substitute teacher, hopes to get a full-time position but is thwarted once too often. Meanwhile, 24-year-old Michelle Salto and her sister Hannah set out to seek revenge on the two members of the Japanese mafia, the yakuza, who shot their parents in cold blood 20 years ago. The girls’ lives are destroyed on account of the sins of their parents.
Receiving a cursed gun in a package from their father’s friend, the girls set out to kill their parent’s killers. The sixth man Michelle kills is Ken’s father.
When Ken picks up the gun, it sets off a chain of death and destruction that can only end after he has killed six people. Ken thinks he can fight against the instinct to kill, but the gun has a mind of its own, and it is thirsty for blood.
Ken, the son of an honest mother and a father who used to be a gangster, has a strong moral compass. Forced to kill, Ken seeks to play vigilante against the appetite of the gun.
But will his morals stand against the will of the gun?
The writing was powerful.
He tore the details out of himself like bits of shrapnel from a festering wound – painful yet necessary.
The main characters are Americans of Japanese origin. There aren’t too many characters in this book, but they all have a key role to play.
The narrative was smooth, well written and well paced. It was almost like a detailed screenplay. I could easily imagine the action.
The very first chapter, with the writing so spare yet lush, felt like a short story. Things got better from there. Starting from a difficult situation, the author keeps upping the ante for the main characters. The addition of crazy and bizarre characters like Robby and Chrissie does nothing to make things easier for Ken. These are people whose moral compass is already soiled thanks to drug abuse.
The author tells us that Ken had developed a tolerance towards the absurd. But to us, as readers, the events playing out don’t appear absurd. Instead we watch the action unfold with bated breath.
The book raises moral questions. If you were forced to kill somebody, would you? If the choice wasn’t yours to make, how would you react?
It also reminds us that our actions have the potential to affect the lives of others long after we are gone.
This is my first book by Brandon McNulty but it won’t be the last. I sure hope there will be a book 2, an Exit Wounds, in the future. There are far too many loose threads, Robby, Takahashi, Angela, Ken, that need to be tied up.
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