Martin Copeland

Private Detective John Marriner, newly ensconced in Los Angeles after being exiled to Nowheresville after bitchslapping the city Police Chief (for a good reason, as if he ever needs one), cracks a big case for once in a blue moon and pockets enough cash to offer his French girl friend Gwen a trip to Paris and south to Perpignan, where her family lives. "It is so much your funeral, " Gwen cautions, but off they go and Marriner has a great time butchering the language, reducing the country's stock of wine and amusing the locals--until a tragic discovery of a missing girl's corpse sets him on the trail of a killer who has been preying on young women near the city's train station.
In a foreign country, unable to speak French, the odds are stacked higher than Everest against him--but Marriner once climbed Everest and couldn't give a damn about odds when he's on a quest to bring a ruthless killer to the guillotine.