Get Ready to Say Goodbye by Lavonne McKee and Ted Schwarz

Some true crime authors are great at putting the reader into the middle of the story. Others create rich settings or intriguing characterizations. Then there are the other authors, those who are part of the story themselves: the victims, families of the victims, or even investigators on the case. This final group typically produces the worst books — not always, of course, but I suspect that their intimacy with the events reduces their objectivity, and many seem to be soapboxes for an issue rather than a true true crime book.

Stacey Koon’s book, Presumed Guilty, is a perfect example. I’d love to tell you more than that it’s supposed to be about the Rodney King incident, but I couldn’t get past the 30th page because it seemed to be all about what an incredibly wonderful man Koon is — and not much else.” Some people just shouldn’t be writers.

I can’t say that Lavonne McKee and Ted Schwarz fall into that category, but Get Ready to Say Goodbye borders on not being about a crime so much as a cry for gun control.

The book has the feel of a story told emotionally from the inside. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and the account is touching, if not well-written. Ted Schwarz is, according to the book jacket, a professional writer; Lavonne McKee is the mother of the victim, 14-year-old Dwayne McKee, who was shot by his jealous best friend, Jeff Townsend in the Townsend home in June 1985. McKee was not killed, fortunately, but the event left him a quadriplegic.

The eight-page prologue describes the events leading up to the shooting and the shooting itself. The first chapter, called “Dwayne’s Been Shot” shows the raw emotion the McKee family experienced when they heard and responded to the shooting. The rest of the book deals with Dwayne’s long recovery, the trial, Lavonne’s fight for stricter gun control laws, and the difficulties and challenges the family and Dwayne dealt with.

The book is described as “part true crime, part true grit, and part true hell.” While Get Ready to Say Goodbye does include a true crime, I don’t think it really belongs in the genre.

But it’s worth a read.

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