Flesh Wound is Paul Grescoe's first novel featuring investigator Dan Rudnicki. It is my sincere hope that the future novels featuring this kind, funny, very likable character will involve him in better storylines.

Dan Rudnicki is a single father raising two young daughters. Never able to really find his "niche" in life, he stumbles into freelance investigative work. In this case, he's asked to look into the death of a beautiful up-and-coming movie star, Bobbi Flynn. Bobbi has been murdered just prior to wrapping her final scenes in a movie that's sure to be a blockbuster. Dan arrives at the set to discover that everyone's in a panic. From the director, whose alibi is "questionable" to the producer and the other actors, no one knows who to trust. Everyone wants this murder solved quickly so they can get on with their lives.

I enjoyed Dan's character very much. He's smart, funny, and good at what he does. His first priority is always the care of his daughters, and his father who plays the role of everybody's favorite Grandpa. Though they reside in Canada, Gramps and Dan are Ukrainian and like to toss around a lot of italicized phrases from "The Old World". Dan's late wife was Jewish so he sprinkles a good deal of Yiddish into his vocabulary, as well. With an abundance of patience and truly kind hearts, Dan and Gramps are raising two delightful children. Overall, the Rudnickis come off a truly loving family. It's a good thing, too. Because with a story as dull as this one turns out to be, Dan's home life is the only part of the book that's a real joy to read.

So what's so bad about the story?

Well, for starters, most of the characters surrounding the murder are ridiculous. They're all painted like caricatures. The overly dramatic actor, the bottom-line-minded movie mogul. Most of the characters are given no depth whatsoever.

The only character developed at all is murder victim number two, Georgia West. Born George West, Georgia is now a female, and the prostitute who gives the movie's director his alibi. She turns up dead very early on, but we get to "know" her, through her diary. Dan finds the diary and gets to read it before turning it over to the police. It is through these pages that we learn about George's childhood, and the difficult times he had, growing up in a body that he felt was a mistake. The diary readings were interesting, far more so than the rest of the book, actually.

Because in the end, the story and therefore the book are just boring. The story meanders all over the place, with too many characters and too many loose ends. There also seem to be some "not so hidden agendas". Like constantly mentioning the way the Canadian government has removed funding from various programs and how some people are suffering for it. I don't mind you mentioning it once, but it seemed the author really wanted to drive his point home by repeatedly bringing it up.

I would be willing to give another Dan Rudnicki novel a try, but I can't recommend this book. The story is simply way too boring. In the end, I was just happy to get to the last page. At that point I knew who the bad guy was, but I just didn't care.


Recommended: No