Black ice

Matt Dickinson's first novel was set on Everest, which he has climbed.

His brilliant thriller is set in Antarctica, which he also knows well ( he almost died there), and reveals an overwhelming backdrop to a story of scientific breakthrough, disaster and extraordinary personal tensions.

From the outside Julian Fitzgerald is a traditional British hero, an expedition leader to the extremes of the earth and a PR dream.

But his latest challenge in Antarctica has gone badly wrong and a call for help which is not as it seems brings him into contact with a group of scientists who have uncovered a remarkable secret deep in the core of the continent.

As Fitzgerald's true nature is revealed, the lives of the whole base are at risk together with a dramatic ecological discovery that could transform human knowledge.