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<p>You could become whatever you want to be.</p><p>A ballerina, a cowboy, a fireman, a teacher. The sky was the limit &#8211; or so you were told. You could grow up and become the person of your dreams and that was OK. Except sometimes, as in the new book &#8220;A Murder Over a Girl&#8221; by Ken Corbett, dreaming can be deadly.</p><p>Larry King had had a rough start in life.</p><p>Born to an addict who &#8220;turned tricks&#8221; for drugs, Larry was neglected and abused and became a ward of the state as a small toddler; at 2, the little &#8220;brown boy&#8221; was adopted by a white couple and life was better &#8211; until he reached adolescence. At 15, he began talking about wearing make-up and women&#8217;s clothing, and becoming the girl he felt he was.</p><p>Many of his teachers &#8220;directed Larry to the closet;&#8221; the supportive ones were criticized. His adoptive parents tried to downplay his wishes; eventually, Larry left their house and moved into a group home, where he felt comfortable enough to start transitioning. He asked his teachers to call him &#8220;Leticia&#8221; and he began wearing cosmetics and feminine apparel to school.</p><p>To those who knew him, Brandon McInerney was &#8220;just a regular kid.&#8221; Blonde, blue-eyed, and athletic, he liked riding his bike and hanging out with friends &#8211; though there was a side of him that many knew but few acknowledged: McInerney had a quick temper and was fascinated with Nazism and skinhead culture. Larry King, therefore, was everything McInerney hated &#8211; especially when, as rumor had it, King asked McInerney to &#8220;be his Valentine.&#8221;</p><p>Or, at least that&#8217;s what other middle-schoolers claimed, although no one could &#8220;actually recollect&#8221; hearing it. Even if his words were just rumor, some kids still said McInerney was bothered by King&#8217;s &#8220;flamboyant&#8221; actions, possibly to the point of sputtering rage.</p><p>Friends advised McInerney to ignore King &#8211; but he couldn&#8217;t. And so, on Feb. 12, 2008, not three weeks after his 14th birthday, McInerney took a gun to school and shot King twice in the head.</p><p>I wish I could say that there&#8217;s a satisfying ending to this book, but there&#8217;s not. And it&#8217;s not author Ken Corbett&#8217;s fault, but reading &#8220;A Murder Over a Girl&#8221; is somewhat like watching a horrible train wreck that just keeps going.</p><p>Surprisingly, that doesn&#8217;t diminish the importance of this book.</p><p>Corbett, a clinical psychologist, offers readers a look at a crime from a non-lawmaker&#8217;s point of view. This unique eye for what happened enhances the understanding of the whole picture, psychologically speaking and especially in the books&#8217; second section. There, Corbett writes mostly about the trial, witnesses, and other research, all of which seemed to allow him to dive more personally into this story &#8211; and so, because he presents it well, will you.</p><p>This is a timely book, a trial-watcher&#8217;s delight, and a shocker all around. It has no happy ending, but it&#8217;s impossible to look away, nonetheless.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_thumbnail_Murder-Over-a-Girl.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">&#8216;A Murder Over a Girl&#8217; is written by Ken Corbett and explores the trial of the murder of Larry King. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_thumbnail_Murder-Over-a-Girl.jpg</photo0><caption0>&#8216;A Murder Over a Girl&#8217; is written by Ken Corbett and explores the trial of the murder of Larry King. </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Terri Schlichenmeyer</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p>&#8216;A Murder Over a Girl&#8217;</p><p>Author: Ken Corbett</p><p>Publisher: Henry Holt and Company LLC</p><p>Pages: 273</p></factboxMeta></div>

The Bookwoom Sez: True and timely, ‘A Murder Over a Girl’ is a heartbreaking tale