Riverdale's newly appointed head of homicide Lieutenant Andy Sinnott and criminalist Linda Davis team up to search for the elusive Icepick Killer, a serial rapist and murderer who punctures the eyes of his victims with sharp instruments. Captain Troy Nolan and Sally Brightson, honeymooning in the Bahamas for a month, are blissfully unaware of the homicides and arsons that plague Riverdale. Did Troy and Sally leave Riverdale in good hands? Is Andy up to the task of solving both multiple murders and an arson that killed an additional twenty people? Investigative reporter Joel Hickman thinks not, and Hickman pressures the mayor and Chief of Police Roger Elway to fire Andy Sinnott. When evidence points to Harvey Fredriks, Rat's friend "George" from the novel Pickaxe, being the Icepick Killer, Rat teams up with Andy, Linda, and Pathologist Earl Stowe to prove Harvey's innocence and track down the real killer. But even the best laid plans of Rat and men often go awry, and the killer targets Stowe, Linda, Lorraine Evangelista, Andy, and Rat as his next victims. Icepick is the eagerly-awaited sequel to Pickaxe and an exciting part of The Instruments of Death series of forensic mysteries by Paul Dale Anderson.