Review: One moment's pleasure
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 7, 2013
In 1870 a young woman arrives from Boston, unescorted, in teeming San Francisco.  She believes that her sister is in trouble.  But Edith soon discovers that trouble awaits anyone visiting the city.  Surrounded by businessmen, Chinese, rogues, thieves and charlatans at the station, she finds it difficult to get her bearings.  A businessman called Dutch, who has a lively past, helps her but he's more concerned with the activities of white slavers.In the busy city wheeler-dealers are getting up to all kinds of mischief amid inadequate or corrupt law. Edith takes a room in a house of ill repute, but is drugged and Dutch inadvertently places the winning bid for her at auction.  He has no intention of taking it further, but removes her for her own protection and demonstrates to her what peep-shows and bordellos are about, hoping to make her see sense.  The stubborn girl can't give up her quest for her sister however....Rue Allyn places contrasting characters in an interesting situation and the pace keeps up, with plenty of period detail to anchor the story. Opium dens, stray dogs, photography and child abuse all populate the streets, and lucky for Edith she has friends in Dutch, kittens, a priest and a Chinese girl servant.ONE MOMENT'S PLEASURE will interest romance readers who enjoy historical tales and unusual settings and characters.