Joe Copp, ex-LAPD cop and now ex-private eye comes out of retirement to become the acting Police Chief of Brighton, California, a one-time peaceful agricultural oasis in the desert foothills, turned ultra-violent urban sprawl. The department is in shambles with crime running rampant and officers on the take.

No sooner does Copp move into his magnificently furnished, state-of-art office, than all hell breaks loose. Brighton PD officers begin to turn up dead and that's just the beginning of the carnage. Copp must discern friend from foe on the double before he too ends up DOA. Copp's only assumption: sex and money are at the root of the corruption.

Don Pendleton's fifth in the Copp series, Copp On Ice reads like a tornado.