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.