Foul Play — Larry Darter

A search for the estranged husband of a rich young thing from Boston seeking reconciliation leads L. A. private detective Ben Malone south of the border to the exotic locales of the Mexican Riviera and into an entanglement with a trio of ruthless grifters who will stop at nothing including murder to protect their confidence scheme.

""It was one of those clear, sunny afternoons we get in Los Angeles in the early spring after a rain. There was still snow on the peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains, but the Hollywood Hills were green, and the jacaranda trees were blooming in Beverly Hills.""

So begins Foul Play, the sixth novel in the private investigator series of crime and suspense thrillers featuring Los Angeles private eye Ben Malone. Business is a little slow, and Malone is feeling restless until L. A. attorney Liz Harper calls with a job: a young, beautiful, and desperate woman wants Malone to find her estranged husband.

Malone sets out on his search, almost immediately discovering the man's whereabouts. But that only propels him into a series of bewildering events and a web of fraud, deceit, and murder.