Jerry Broadfield thinks he's a good cop. But he's been charged with extortion - and his former buddies in the NYPD would like to see him laid bare out on a morgue slab for squealing to a committee on police corruption. And when a dead hooker turns up in his apartment, he's saddled with a murder rap as well. Broadfield screams "frame-up" and nobody believes him - except ex-policeman-turned-p.i. Matthew Scudder. But finding a killer among the stoolie-cop's sleazebag connections is going to be as difficult as finding a cold beer in Hell - which is where Scudder is headed if he sticks his nose in too deep.