Ashes to Ashes [Paperback]

Lyn Riddle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1997

On a November afternoon in 1992, 24-year-old Bobby Coulson murdered his parents, two sisters, and a brother-in-law. He bound and gagged his first victim, his mother, and set her on fire. When Bobby was arrested for the crimes, everyone believed he'd done it for his parents' $600,000 estate. But his actual motives were much deeper and darker. Now, featuring Bobby's mother's diary, interviews with family members and friends, here is the gripping story of a mother whose love wasn't enough to save her son or herself. Photos.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Pinnacle (May 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786019468
• ISBN-13: 978-0786019465
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,204,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Lacks insight and human interest., October 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Ashes To Ashes (Pinnacle True Crime) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a competent enough reporting of the crime, heavy on court transcripts as the source for information. But the author never creates much sympathy for the victims, never provides insight into the killer or his victims and, stangely enough, promises to reveal many things that never even get discussed. We keep getting told certain things, like the kid was always trouble, the adoption agency should have provided support, etc, but the claims are never backed up by actual examples or slices of life. For example, if Bob Coulson was such a troubled youngster, why don't we ever get an example of what he did as a child to cause his mother anguish? There is a single example, only, dealt with in a paragraph. We never get to see or even guess what is going on inside his head, what fueled his anger, what created him as such an amoral person. Then there is the matter of the mother's diary. A big deal is made of it, one character even sits down to read it with much fanfare: yet not a single excerpt from it is used! We don't even get a summary of what's in it. There is also a book jacket refernce to the shocking relationship between Bob Coulson and his youngest sister, but other than the sister wanting to stay at his apartment one night the topic is never even dealt with in the book! Instead, it's just a dry re-telling of the facts and observations by peripheral people. It's not that the book needed juicy, tasteless details; what is lacking is insight into the human beings involved in this crime: who they were, the events that shaped them into being who they were, and what was lost when they died.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting story , but was the editor asleep?, May 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ashes To Ashes (Pinnacle True Crime) (Mass Market Paperback)

This story is based on the horrible murder of 5 members of 1 family. Much of the story apparently is from the journal of the murdered mother Mary Coulson. Perhaps the thing about this book that drove me wild was the inconsistencies in referring to the black sheep son, Bob. He is called Coulson while the rest of the family members are called by their 1st names. Then at other times, he is called Bob. Yes, the author's bias is apparent from the start, but this book needed a stronger editor not only to help pull the story together, but to do some basic proof reading. I also wondered why Bob was seen coming out of his sister's bedroom in the early morning hours.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst book I have ever read, August 23, 2002

By 

violet "violet" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ashes To Ashes (Pinnacle True Crime) (Mass Market Paperback)

First off, I had no previous knowledge of this crime, I decided to read this book because the back cover promised a "shocking diary" kept by Bob Coulsons adoptive mother amongst other things.
Well guess what? The diary is mentioned in maybe 2 paragraphs in the whole book. You don't get any insight into the relationships of these people. You only get a quick rundown of the parents. There was a few minor "scandalous" behaviors, like the two sisters getting pregnant before marriage, but other than that, nothing.
There was no in depth bio about who Bob Coulson was, nothing about his past, except that he was adopted at a young age. The only reason he killed his family was for the inheritance. I have no doubt that he did this awful crime but i think there was a lot more behind it. Why couldn't the author have dug a little deeper?
The book was written horribly, at an extremely fast pace, and there were no "shocking photos".