Wages of Sin

If TheWages of Sin were a novel, you would question the author's grip on reality. But's it's not fiction, it's real life and Suzy Spencer grapples with it masterfully. Spencer artfully guides you through the disjointed lives and troubled minds of an unlikely duo: a Southern Baptist girl turned stripper and a National Guardsman turned sociopath. Spencer is staunchly faithful to the facts of this human tragedy. However, there is nothing clinical about her style. It is full of evocative imagery that creates a theatre in your mind. On the stage, a sordid story unfolds. Although, it may make you uncomfortable, you cannot bear to look away. When you finished this tantalizing tale, you will not want to believe that people like William Busenburg and Stephanie Martin exist; but you will be glad Suzy Spencer does and you will eagerly await her next book.

This is one of the few true crime books I've read that was written by a truly fine author. Spencer uses her time well. Her background information on the killers could not have been better written or more well researched. We know the killers well before we ever meet them.Spencer is just as thorough in her description of the crime, and the trial, and her later interview with Stephanie Martin, one of the killers.Do we come out of this book knowing precisely who did what to the victim, or to each other, and what exactly happened? We don't, but we don't because Spencer tells the whole truth and writes completely honestly. We feel as confused as everyone who committed the crime, or who knew those who did. Both criminals blame the other. Their stories flip and flop and betray each other and themselves. For Spencer to have written a wonderful and coherent book out of such confusionn affords her great applause and admiration.I read this book so quickly just because Spencer draws the reader along so well. She's really an artful writer.All that I disagree with is Spencer's ending. Not one of my nutty friends would ever believe the stories that Stephanie Martin believe of Will. And I question how a God-fearing, "nice" Christian girl could leave home and go directly into topless dancing. Her gullibility, her lack of self-esteem about her own womanhood, and her ability to involve herself, in whatever way, in a murder, make me believe, as a licensed social worker, that Stephanie was as much a sociopath and psycopath as Will.But that isn't the point of this review, and the ending is quite short. Spencer is in fine form as a writer, and this book is one the reader simply can't put down. Not for one moment does all the detail Spencer gives become boring, because she writes it oh so well.I highly recommend this book.

Yes, I really did read it three times in one week. I loved this book. I especially liked the last quarter of the book where it was just killer Stephanie Martin talking. It let me really get into her mind and see how she thinks. Amazing.

WOW! When other true crime writers talk about their favorite writers, Suzy Spencer will be on the top of their list. Wages of Sin engages the reader in a story beyond just a gruesome murder. Good and evil are clearly defined with empathy for the victim and his family and friends clearly detailed. But, the steps of discovering who would do such a horrible act and why keeps readers on the edge of their seats. If you love true crime, you'll love this book.

If you want a classic true crime story in the vein of the masterpiece In Cold Blood, then read Suzy Spencer's Wages of Sin. In depth characterization of all the players (Stephanie Martin; Will Busenburg; the victim, Chris Hatton; the park ranger, Michael Brewster; Chris's girlfriend, Lisa, along with other distinctive characters) make this story a page turner. Without judgment, Spencer tells this tale with an compelling blend of compassion and suspense. Great storytelling also makes this story, Wages of Sin, a must read and a story to read again to understand the mind of these killers.