Wages Of Sin

by Suzy Spencer

The author of the best-selling Wasted describes the brutal murder and mutilation of Christopher Hatton by Stephanie Lynn Martin, a stripper raised as a devout Southern Baptist, and her boyfriend, William M. Busenburg, who killed Busenberg's best friend to fulfill a depraved fantasy of murder. Original.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Audiobook

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 2000

About the author

Suzy Spencer is known for her true crime books, including "Breaking Point," the story of Andrea Yates, and "Wasted," a New York Times best-seller. Her newest book is "Secret Sex Lives: A Year on the Fringes of American Sexuality."

Reviews

[♥ Marlene♥ · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is October 12 and I am reading another Suzy Spencer book. Shoot me now! Thankfully this one I got for free thanks to kindle unlimited.

This is one of them. Suzy Spencer can't write.

Let's see. She has written 5 books of which 4 are true crime books.
Let's see I think the first book I bought was Breaking Point which I bought as a hardback and had been on my wish list for years. This was the story about Andrea Yates who drowned her babies. FIVE children!!!

How is it possible to write a bad book while the case is so interesting? Ask Ms Spencer. She is a pro in writing bad books. I gave that book 2 stars.

Then there was Fortune Hunter another book I paid full price for by the way and another terrible book. Yet again she jumped all over the place with her writing but yet again it was one of the most interesting cases but she managed to write a bad book. That must be a talent too!

So that I was so stupid to try another book of hers.. Wasted What a perfect title! Yes I wasted my money and wasted my time but it is all on me. I should have known better but in defense of myself it was free because I had signed up for kindle unlimited's month of free trial.

However I am proud to tell you that I gave this book just a few chapters, not realizing this was the third book I had read written by this author I had hated. Wasted I gave 1 star which is still one too many.

Then only today while I was online wondering what others thought of this book, I discovered so far I had hated all her books!!

This does it. No more Suzie Spencer for me.

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 2 out of 5]

What the what
I dont know if the narrator was that disorganized in thought and spirit or if the author didn’t know how to develop a sensical timeline with constant follow through. I hate rating true crime but this was so bad. My collection would have been fine without this.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating examination of a murder and attempted corpse burning that involves a deluded stripper and a man passing himself off as a CIA asset. He sold her out testifying her to be the shooter and weirdly bloodthirsty with cult connections. From imprisonment, she paints a picture of a bedazzled accomplice only cult-intrigued involved in the clean-up, not the killing. What about the adhesive on the upper lip and ligature marks on the wrist? Possibly all the visits, calls, and purchases were around a long-period torture of a bound person before both working to cause his death....

An interview with the author.

[Jennifer Kovelan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing was horrible and the story contradicted the author's own afterward. You can't blame a woman for everything and then offer up a cautionary statement about others being duped. This author has no shame, glad she gave up writing true crime.

[Kim Gasparini · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book overpromised and disappointed in the end.

So much of this is pulled from transcripts of proceedings and police interviews that it is hard to get through.

In addition, the he said-she said thing gets repetitive.

I do appreciate that they didn’t paint the victim of this case as being perfect and “lighting up every room” that he entered.

Imperfect people don’t deserve to be murdered either.

[Karen Bullock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chris Hatton was not a nice guy: a liar, a cheat, took the easy way out, falsified documents, lazy & swallowed up by his own incompetence to finish anything he ever started; succumbed to the alcoholism that plagued his family & was overall a selfish person but with all that, he still did not deserve all the horrific things that were done to him. The heavy descriptive details of his death were gruesome and made an impact.
An impact that there are some truly sick and twisted people in this world.
Tragically like attracts like and Chris had the misfortune of hanging around people who were just as rotten as he was.
If you like true crime & the disturbing side of Texas crime, then you need to read this.

[Dee brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was great for the first few chapters, then rapidly became a chore to read.

[Candice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terribly written but a good story.

[Margot · Rating 3 out of 5]

horrible writing, intriguing story

[Donna Covell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my kind of book - confusing - hard to follow because of all the lies and conflicting stories.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mutilated and burnt body is found at a campground in Texas. A quick identification of the body leads to the arrest of Will (posing as a CIA agent) and Stephanie (a stripper and calendar girl at a local dance club). Despite a gruesome topic this book was really good and gave an in depth psychological idea of where each character was coming from. I found it fascinating and could not stop reading. It appeared that these young kids had a lot of money to spend on things! One chapter that kept describing Stephanie polygraph testing was a little dull, but otherwise I was engaged. The retrospective in depth interview with Stephanie had you wondering who, what, why provoked the senseless murder of Chris Hatton and what really happened in January 1995.

[Teresa Eversole-Coomer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not her best work...

This story is interesting and worth being read but the writing is not the best in my opinion. Parts of it just seem redundant and repetitive. Several times I could not figure out what the author was saying. Facts are presented in a fractured way then never elaborated on or referred to again. I didn't enjoy this book as well as some of her others. Definitely hard to follow at times.

[Katya · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started strong but got bogged down with exact quotes. It wasn't exactly boring to read every single word out of Stephanie's mouth, but I found myself more and more reluctant to pick up the book and keep reading.

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was okay but the writing was horrible.

From front cover: "A true story of lust, lies and cold-blooded murder".

[Kim Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suzy Spencer looooves detail, but the story was fascinating, especially since the crime happened in Austin.

[Erin Shumate-gudmunson · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this was a great story, I feel like I read the same book 3 times. I think probably about 100 pages could have been cut from this book.

[Shelly Wolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great true crime novel. Keeps you interested all the way to the end. Two monsters together can ruin the life of someone else, yet I don't feel the whole truth was ever revealed.