Shaketown; The Madam's Daughter

Book excerpt: Sex is never discussed in the polite drawing rooms of San Francisco society, though there's plenty to be had from the dank hovels of Chinatown to the glittering showplaces of the beau monde. Growing up far from the drawing rooms of Nob Hill, Cayley Wallace was "raised right" by her religious Irish family in the overcrowded rowhouses south of the slot (Market Street). Her dreams are simple: a warm coat, a husband who doesn’t beat her, a few pennies to ease her family’s poverty. But dreams are hard to come by in San Francisco in 1889. Landing a job as a day servant on "the Hill" is an improvement – until her employer begins to prey on her. An opportunity to work as a bar girl frees her, but makes her an pariah in her tight-knit community. Scholarly Wo Sam only wants to earn enough to pay off his passage and return home to China with enough money to buy a proper bride and house - if he can keep away from the roving white gangs and tong soldiers that turn the streets of San Francisco into a bloody battleground. He's determined to hang on to his dream, even as he sinks deeper into the quicksand criminal underworld of "Little China." When their paths cross, the earth moves, in more ways than one. Sometimes reaching for a dream means turning against everything you’ve always held dear. And sometimes new dreams are better than anything you might have imagined. Based on real characters from San Francisco’s history.