The Sketcher's Mark

A French artist calling himself "Guillotine" is about to achieve national fame in Paris but spends his free time sketching tourists in front of famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and the River Seine. Guillotine is a serial killer who kidnaps and/or murders the beautiful women he sketches, luring them into a false sense of safety as they have their portraits drawn, telling him everything he needs to know about where to find them- and how to catch them. His most recent victim is the sister of driven Detective Lara McBride, whose job it is to hunt down predators like him for the LAPD. When she learns of her sister's disappearance, Lara McBride goes to Paris to find her. Through a series of plausible events, Guillotine contacts Lara McBride and the hunt begins. How they become involved with each other is thrilling, deadly and incredibly dangerous to both cop and killer as they flip between hunter and hunted, both of them dealing with intense, fractured psyches that let in the darkness we all try to keep at bay. What Detective Lara McBride goes through to find her sister is the core of the story. Around that is her relationship with a sympathetic French Police Inspector and her relationships with an Englishman and an American businesswoman who are linked inextricably to the killer as he prepares to unleash his macabre and twisted "masterpiece" on the world.