Detective finds the French hiding in ruined huts (6)
I believe the answer is:
sleuth
'detective' is the definition.
(sleuth is a kind of detective)
'the french hiding in ruined huts' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'hiding in' indicates putting letters inside.
'ruined' is an anagram indicator.
'huts' anagrammed gives 'suth'.
'le' put into 'suth' is 'SLEUTH'.
'finds' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for sleuth that I've seen before include "Hustle like detective (6)" , "Sherlock Holmes, for example" , "tracker" , "Olivier/Caine film" , "Bloodhound" .)