Danielle

A lesbian, kink-erotica/BDSM suspense thriller set against the backdrop of San Francisco government corruption and land development. A Superior Court Judge, Danielle, presides at a manslaughter case where a BDSM scene player has "accidentally" died. The same week the case begins, there is an "accidental" death during a RACK (risk-aware consensual kink) scene with three women at Club Trouvez, a women-centric, BDSM club in downtown SF. Connections between the two incidents unfold: lesbian BDSM culture, edgeplay gone wrong, and links to a major land development corporation.

The death on the premises of Club Trouvez draws media focus as well as a law suit intent on destroying the establishment. Members of the club are alarmed by potential exposure – among them is Danielle. Three years ago, the owner of Club Trouvez, Romanita, seduced Danielle and introduced her to the fem-noir, the subliminal powers of female sexuality, through Dom/sub power-exchange and bondage and discipline activities. Danielle never looked back.

With the club facing closure and many members facing disclosure, Detective Maura Ruffio, assigned to the investigation, must prove the death to be murder and not a case of negligence. She discovers a BDSM/porn film company lurking behind the scenes, intent on taking-over the Club upon its demise. And, she discovers that there is an even greater power-machine behind the film company: Barbary Coast Development, a corporation intent on razing San Francisco coast properties and building high-rises.

In the courtroom, Danielle receives an anonymous letter demanding a particular outcome to the manslaughter case she is hearing as well as the land development case she is next scheduled to preside over, or more would die. She is given a list of ten names, all prominent members of Club Trouvez. One has already been murdered, the others are now targeted for murder. Danielle’s name is on the list.

The death threat brings together the judge and the detective who know each other well, as they had been partners over a decade ago. Professionally and personally re-united, they quickly discover they both are members of Club Trouvez, both have emerged from years of life-lessons learned, and both are aware their passion for each other has not ceased, but increased. Intrigue in the bedroom is resurrected with the delightful admission that they both engage in kink, bondage, and F/f power-exchange play.

The relationship is poised to unfold nicely, but first, Danielle has some sexual loose-ends to tie up, figuratively and literally. To her growing astonishment, her three most recent sex-scene partners – Jackie, Mary, and Renee – are all connected to the criminal investigations at hand. Danielle is abducted, drugged, psychologically tortured, and abused at the hands of – her good friend and scene partner? Danielle reaches out to a woman twenty-years her younger to bring her out – only to find she has been played in a con? Danielle compassionately hears the stories of a media reporter on the scent of a big story to expose the BDSM porn and sex-trafficking industry – and finds she is given false information in a deliberate attempt to involve her in criminal acts?

Danielle and Maura soon realize the complexity of what they are uncovering – a vast network, rooted in a mega-billion land development scheme. Involved are mega-money scandals, murder, blackmail, and coercion, all stunningly and dramatically entwined with the ropes and chains of lesbian kink, bondage, discipline and Dom/sub edgeplay and politics.