Frederick Harlan “Kevin” Coe was a name I’d heard in true crime circles but never paid much attention to, with Jack Olsen’s “Son” and a running time of just over 21 hours, I knew I was in for a ride.

Washington State consistently leaves me wondering how there are any young women left living in that state. the book tells the tale off the South Hill rapist who terrorized Spokane in the late seventies and early eighties with 32 confirmed cases at the *least* a horrifying number of lives forever changed.

Kevin Coe, as he liked to be called, reminded me very much of Ted Bundy without the finesse. Bundy can be said to have gone off the rails after confinement in both Utah State prison and Colorado State prison while awaiting trials. his deadly unhinging ending in Florida with the attacks of seven women and girls in that state leaving three dead.

the world watched Ted as he tried unsuccessfully as defending himself in trial. they witnessed a man who didn’t seem to understand the world we all shared.

THAT was Kevin Coe.
that was also his mother Ruth.

several times in the book I was left speechless. the absolute ironclad denial in reality was shocking. surely anyone living in our plane could understand, or, we would like to think so. for when it comes to dealing with true psychopaths and narcissists you’ll never meet anyone better at the game than them.

Jack Olsen is masterful with the care he takes with the victims and loved ones of the monsters he profiles. each woman’s story was told with tenderness. the updates on them far less neat, and much more realistic. most of the survivors moved on – and that’s really all that one can ask for.

I found myself feeling sympathy for Kevin at times, he was clearly a very sick individual with no real grasp on reality. the psychopath has no ability to delay gratification. what Kevin wanted he wanted now. The success owed to him, as demanded by his mother, surely would have come if only had has the ability to try.

He didn’t
he couldn’t
and that failure and rage drove him to exact his revenge and take out his frustrations on the helpless women of Spokane.

a mother’s love is never-ending and Ruth Coe took that seriously. I found her fate to be a surprise at the end of this book, for as much as true crime lovers know, I still holding out a belief that sanity would win.

it did not.

you learn of Kevin from his friends, many of whom still speak warmly of him, as well as his lovers, some of whom still, throughout the pain and strife, feel warmly about him. as Kevin’s friends Jay said “he was eccentric, but never boring”

Kevin struck me as someone who wanted so much to be normal. He might’ve gotten close here it not for the toxic and symbiotic relationship with his mother. one that both courted tragedy and needed drama.

mother and son of two minds.
neither could survive without the other, and neither would.

Kevin Pierce was as usual terrific as a narrator. truly one of the best in his field. He could read the phone book and I’d pay $35 for it hahaha.

this book was disorienting and I think that’s the best part. I likened it to putting on beer goggles. you get to enter the mind of the narcissist and of the psychopath. with Jack Olsen’s pacing you never in that state for long, and or that I’m grateful.