Oaktree, Kansas, 1868

Rebecca Colfax left her infant son at an orphanage; she couldn't care for him and hunt for her husband at the same time. Ben didn't know he was going to be a father when he left her after gambling away her inheritance and home, but surely once she finds him, he'll return to St. Louis to do what's right. Rebecca gets as far as Oaktree, a rough frontier town, in her search. But now she's desperately in need of a job in order to keep body and soul together and continue her search. She misses little Daniel so, she's willing to do most anything. The only job available is as a Hurdy-Gurdy girl in a saloon -- someone to dance with customers and get paid for each drink he buys her. The best of the town's saloons is the Red Garter where the owner, Andrew Kearney, is willing to pay her to sing as well. Kearney is a relatively enlightened gentleman who runs an honest place. Though the other girls earn extra by taking men upstairs, he doesn't force them to do so. Rebecca, using Miss Glory as an alias, draws the line at following their lead.

It takes courage and some little time for Rebecca to begin to be comfortable with the other employees: Dante, the dwarf bartender; Simon, the piano player and former slave; Frank, the bouncer; and the girls, bossy Cassie, jealous Molly, friendly Georgia, and Rose, the youngest. Comfortable, however, is not the word to describe how the establishment's resident gambler, Slater Forrester, makes Glory feel.

Slater is one of three brothers who were orphaned and then separated years ago. He ran away from a cruel home and was rescued as a youth by Andrew Kearney when he tried to pick his pocket. Andrew became like a second father. Slater's life has been adventuresome to say the least. His stint in the War Between the States ended on a horrific note. At first he's cynical about Miss Glory and her lady-like ways. Besides, he never dallies with the girls at the Red Garter. It's not at all easy, though, to ignore the powerful attraction.

A REASON TO SIN has Maureen McKade's usual easy flowing prose. However, it seems to lack the engaging quality found in the novel's two prequels, the excellent A REASON TO BELIEVE about Rye, the youngest Forrester brother, and the marvelous A REASON TO LIVE, that tells the tale of Reede, the eldest. Part of my problem with A REASON TO SIN is its setting in a saloon. The mundane workings of such a life doesn't interest me, and while the male supporting characters were original and interesting, the girls, apart from Georgia, were not. Even Rebecca's yearning for her baby was factual, rather than something I was made to feel. Still, if you've enjoyed the two previous books in the series, you'll want to see how it all ends up, and if you have ever had a fantasy about playing Miss Kitty in Gunsmoke, A REASON TO SIN just may be your favorite.

Jane Bowers