The Executioner Weeps — Frederic Dard

Winner of the 1957 Grand Prix de Littérature Policière: A macabre thriller about the dangerous pitfalls of love
 
It was fate that led her to step out in front of the car. A quiet mountain road. A crushed violin. And a beautiful woman lying motionless in the ditch.
 
Carrying her back to his lodging on a beach near Barcelona, Daniel discovers that the woman is still alive but that she remembers nothing -- not even her own name. And soon he has fallen for her mysterious allure. She is a blank canvas, a perfect muse, and his alone. But when Daniel travels to France in search of her past, he slips into a tangled vortex of lies, depravity, and murder.
 
Written by one of the masters of French noir, The Executioner Weeps won the 1957 Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, France's most prestigious literary award for crime fiction writers.