"SON": A Psychopath and His Victims - Hardcover

Olsen, Jack

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689114087 ISBN 13: 9780689114083

Publisher: Atheneum, 1983

Synopsis

Recounts the tragic events that followed the arrest of Fred Coe, a conservative, clean-cut young man, for a series of rapes committed in the city of Spokane and led to revenge and murder

About this title

Review:

On one level, this 1984 Edgar Award Nominee is the story of a sociopathic rapist, a clean-cut realtor named Fred Coe who raped dozens of women in sunny Spokane, Washington. Olsen paints the portrait of a man whose exterior grandiosity and air of savoir faire barely conceal his deep insecurity about his career failures--a temperamental prima donna who emulates the pathetic hero of "American Gigolo." But on another, even more compelling level, this is the story of the women in Fred's life: His histrionic, clinging mother is a fair-skinned beauty in jet-black wigs, outrageous attire, and excessive jewelry, who eventually plots to kill the judge and prosecutor who put her dear "Son" away. A wife, and later on a girlfriend, both devoted to Fred, are devastated by his exposure as a brutal rapist. And several of Fred's many victims are also compassionately portrayed in all their individuality.

About the Author:

Born June 7, 1925, Jack Olsen was the award-winning author of thirty-three books published in fifteen countries and eleven languages, including Son: A Psychopath and His Victims. A former Time bureau chief, Olsen wrote for Vanity Fair, People, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, and The New York Times Book Review, among others.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum
• Publication date: 1983
• ISBN 10: 0689114087
• ISBN 13: 9780689114083
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 519