Delaware Deep Dark

Five years ago Venus Preston disappeared walking home from school. She's never been seen, found, or heard of since. The cop who investigated her disappearance, Sergeant William Halt of the Dover Police, made a promise to her father, Miles, that he would find her, but he is now a broken man. Badly injured in a car crash, injuries from which he has never recovered, he is no longer a cop and remains bitter at the accident, which he believes was incompetence on behalf of the driver and he is so depressed that he decides to end his life. On January 2nd, he decides to end it all with a hosepipe attached to the exhaust of his car. As he bends to adjust the hose, someone attempts to kill him. Neither of the attempts on his life succeed. The attempted murderer is Miles Preston, father of Venus, who blames William for never finding his daughter, who would now be twenty-one years of age. Crippled and down, William believes he can turn to only one other person for help, Fred, the statuesque English cop he met when he was on officer exchange in Manchester, England .
Only trouble with her is that she likes to be caned.
She is a serious devotee to the bamboo stick, adores it being laid across her buttocks and during his time in England, William, an upright member of Delaware society is appalled her her behavior.. But she's a really good cop and William needs her, so she flies out from England to help, only to become embroiled in serious sexual activities that become almost too much for Fred, real name Frederica Gemmell.
These two, the caned sex fiend and the crippled ex-cop, set out to discover what happened to Venus Preston only to stumble upon a world of evil magicians and Mesmerists' who believe it is perfectly normal to hold women as slaves.
A fast moving, sexual tense and exciting crime novel of an unusual nature, that should, if the reader i=s either a fan of contrived crime fan or of caning, should satisfy both genres.
A brilliantly evocative new book form the master of crime, S.D. Griipton.