We enter Brian Moore's tautly dramatic new novel ["The Temptation of Eileen Hughes"] … through the eyes of Eileen Hughes, a 20-year-old from Northern Ireland on her first visit to London. She's the sort of person who says, "It's grand, really it is," when Bernard McAuley, her employer's husband, shows her into the tiny top-floor maid's room she must stay in because the hotel has neglected to reserve her a room near the McAuleys' suite….

But what is Eileen Hughes doing here with the McAuleys, a Roman Catholic couple from Eileen's home town of Lismore, who are rich where she is poor, worldly where she is innocent, bold where she is shy?…

[After] tantalizing us with … finely calibrated innuendoes, Mr. Moore reveals the game that is afoot. Bernard McAuley is insanely in love with Eileen. He's worshiped her ever since Mona first hired her to work in one of...