Wages of Sin: A Novel of Suspense

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Summary: Every weird thing imaginable!
Review: A crucified priest with an astonishing secret! A teen-age girls' cult that idolizes a beautiful film star! A detective whose brother is a priest in the same parish as the crucified one. That same detective's lover is the object of the teen girls' obsession. Those girls being murdered. All this takes place in 1920's New Orleans. This is a great read and the end will blow your mind! I must now read "Mortal Sins." This one was awesome!

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Summary: A True Suspense Novel
Review: Detective Damon Rourke of the New Orleans police force has his work cut out for him...and it's gotten personal. A beloved priest has been crucified in a most horrible way and the autopsy reveals an incredible secret that Father Patrick Walsh never wanted his parishioners to learn of.

In order to find out what dark reasons hide behind the motive for Father Patrick's death, Rourke must "shake down" the other priests of Holy Rosary, including his own brother, Father Paul, who is plainly bearing a heavy burden of his own guilt.

At the same time, two young girls have been raped and murdered. And the young Negro chimney sweep who has been tried and convicted now faces execution in the newfangled electric chair. But did he really commit the ugly crimes or is he dealing with an occurrence common in the world of 1927 - conviction based on circumstantial evidence and skin color?

Closer still to Rourke's own back door are the threats to his girlfriend, popular silent screen actress Remy Lelourie. What starts out with notes written in blood and lipstick escalates into things Rourke doesn't even want to imagine. And is determined to keep from happening.

Sleep deprivation is well-known by Rourke as he attempts to unravel the mysteries behind these crimes...even more so when he realizes there may be a tenuous thread connecting them all.

Penelope Williamson not only knows how to create suspense, she also has what it takes to involve the readers into the lives of her characters in such a way as to make it possible to care what happens to them. Those combined accomplishments make "Wages of Sin" a difficult book to put down. With practically each chapter, a new possibility is opened up as to what might be driving the person(s) involved in the threats and murders and the tension grows to nearly insurmountable levels.

What is touted as the top case, however, is not the one that the reader will find most enthralling. The mystery of the death of Father Patrick Walsh is an interesting one, indeed, but those characters just don't bring out the same emotions as the one surrounding executed seventeen-year-old chimney sweep Titus Dupre.

This definitely deserves top billing. Those involved in this particular plot are easier for the reader to empathize with and some aspects are so well described, one will feel like an actual witness to the events.

Putting all these factors together adds up to "Wages of Sin" being an excellent read. Williamson definitely has what it takes to compete in this genre.

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Summary: I Hated the Ending
Review: The story was great, exciting and so very interesting, but I really really hated the ending.