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David Gilman

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Ice Claw (Danger Zone Book 2) Kindle Edition

by David Gilman (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

3.7 94 ratings

Book 2 of 3: Danger Zone

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Max Gordon: Wanted for Murder

High in the freezing French Pyrenees, Max Gordon’s race to win an X-treme sports challenge has become a race to survive. He witnesses the last moments of a mysterious Basque monk, who screams a cryptic clue before plummeting to his death. The clue? A prophecy that foretells a cataclysmic ecological event that will kill millions of people across Europe. Max is desperate to find a solution, but instead he’s accused of causing the monk’s death, and the hunt is on to find him. How can Max prove his innocence when nobody will trust him . . . and he can trust no one?

Praise for The Devil’s Breath:
“Well-paced and action-packed.”—Kirkus Reviews

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6–10—Extreme sport meets The Da Vinci Code as British 15-year-old Max Gordon witnesses the shooting of Brother Zabala, a Basque monk, while snowboarding in the French Pyrenees. Before the monk dies, he gives Max a pendant and entrusts him with a cryptic message about an impending disaster. Thwarted in the Junior Xtreme competition by a teen thug he calls "Sharkface," Max and his injured friend, Sayid, focus their efforts on investigating the monk's mystical prediction. Plot twists abound, as Max rescues a girl named Sophie who is stalked by mystery men who may have something to do with her father, an endangered-animal protector. Someone is framing Max for Zabala's murder and he retreats to a chateau occupied by his American competitor Bobby Morrell's grandmother. Sayid helps Max decipher some of the magic square numbers in the monk's secret code, but the pair is separated when Sayid and Bobby are kidnapped. Another clue leads Max to Morocco, where he is bitten by a monkey and convalesces at Sophie's father's animal park. When it is learned that an evil Russian physicist named Tishenko is the mastermind of an environmental cataclysm and is after Zabala's code, it is a race against the clock for Max to save his friends and avert a large-scale disaster. Reluctant readers will live moment to moment in scenes describing extreme sport action and harrowing encounters with wild animals and assassins, undeterred by the convoluted plot and underdeveloped characters. Backstory about Max's parents, including his explorer father's slow recovery from an incident in Africa, refers to The Devil's Breath (Delacorte, 2008) and the door remains open for further episodes.—Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY
(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

If you’re looking for pulse-pounding adventure, it’s tough to do better than Gilman’s Danger Zone series. The story follows the same model as The Devil’s Breath (2008): a maniacal evildoer’s catastrophic plans are thwarted by the ingenuity and tenacity of 15-year-old daredevil Max Gordon. This time out, an extreme sports competition leads to a chance rescuing of Sophie, a (maybe) teen femme fatale who ensnares Max in a plot involving endangered animals, astronomy, and a mysterious pendant that a monk hands over seconds before plummeting to a snowy doom. The omniscient point of view doesn’t win Gilman many style points, yet does a lot for clarity, which is his strong suit—few authors are able to depict action scenes so lucidly. And that’s a good thing, because they are literally nonstop: with the clock ticking, Max dashes from France to Switzerland to Morocco via speedboat, snowboard, paraglider, and even tiger. But it’s Max’s humanity—not only are injuries frequent, but in one scene he even cries from fear—that makes Gilman’s research and storytelling come alive. Grades 7-12. --Daniel Kraus

About the Author

For the last six years, David Gilman has been principal writer on the UK television show, A Touch of Frost. He has worked as a firefighter, a professional photographer, and a marketing manager, and has traveled the world, gathering inspiration for The Danger Zone series along the way. He lives in Devon, England.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1

It was too beautiful a day to die.

Max Gordon gazed up at the mountaintops that scarred the crystal-clear sky. A whisper of mist soared up the valley beyond them, twisted briefly and escaped across the peaks. Flurries of snow scattered from the rocks like a flock of white butterflies disturbed from a meadow. But this was no gentle English summer landscape. Max was two thousand freezing meters high in unpredictable weather, and no one knew that he and his best friend, Sayid Khalif, were there.

A massive blanket of snow clung precariously to the rock face a hundred meters above him. One shudder from the breeze, a single tremor from the overladen trees, and a thousand tons of snow would avalanche down and crush him and his injured friend to death.

Fifty meters away Sayid lay twisted in pain and fear. Max had to reach him and get him off the mountainside. There wasn't much time. A sliver of the loosely packed snow crunched down, tumbling beyond Sayid.

"Don't move!" Max shouted, an arm extended towards the boy in warning as he trod carefully, using his upended snowboard to probe the snow.

Max's breath steamed from his exertion as he slumped to his knees next to Sayid. Using his teeth, he pulled off his ski glove and tenderly cradled his friend's leg.
Sayid cried out. His eyes scrunched up, then widened at the pain.

"Sorry, mate," Max said, keeping one eye on the threatening field of loose snow above them.

"It's broken," Sayid mumbled.

"Your leg's all right. Probably just a twisted ankle."

"You think so?"

"Yeah," Max lied. "Serves you right, going off-trail. The whole idea was to stay on safe slopes." He eased Sayid into a sitting position, straightened the crooked leg and wiped snow from the boy's face.

A stupid bet: Sayid on skis against Max on his snowboard--who'd get to the bottom first? But Sayid had veered off several hundred meters back and dipped into this dangerous cleft. It was a deceptive snowfield promising fast skiing, and Max's warnings had been ignored. When Sayid hit the fallen tree trunk lying just below the surface, he'd tumbled forwards for another ten meters. He was lucky he hadn't snapped his neck.

Max busied himself with the broken ski. Pulling the tie cord from Sayid's ski jacket, he strapped the good ski across the snapped piece, forming a cross.
"You making a splint?" Sayid said.

Max shook his head. "You don't deserve one, you idiot. This is your way out of here."

"Are you kidding? I'm in agony. I need a helicopter."

Max finished the binding. "You won't need anything if that slips off the mountain," he said, nodding towards the snowfield.

An ominous crunch reinforced his warning as a huge chunk of snow gave way. It growled down the far side of the slope, a frightening display of weight and power.
"Max! What do we do?"

"If we don't get out of here in a hurry, panic would be a good idea. We've gotta move, Sayid. Grab the crosspiece." Max clamped Sayid's hands onto the broken ski, which now served as a handlebar. "Sit on the good ski, hold on tight, and aim for down there."

Sayid scrambled for something in his pocket. "Wait. Hang on!" He pulled out a string of small black beads, spun them round his fist, kissed them and nodded nervously at Max. "OK. Go!" he said.

Sayid's fear for his life overcame the stabbing pain in his foot as Max shoved him away. Looking like a child on a tricycle whose feet had come off the pedals, Sayid sliced through the snow, the rush of wind carrying his yelps of fear back towards Max.

Max had just clamped his boots onto the snowboard when the mountainside fell. The scale of the huge block of snow mesmerized him. It dropped in slow motion, a fragment of time during which he knew he could not outrun anything that powerful or fast. A shudder came up through the ground. Max bent his knees, lunging away as the blurred power smashed the trees two hundred meters to his right. Swirling powder smothered him and the gust of wind from the avalanche pummeled his back. He threw his weight forward and curved away as fast as he could. The avalanche ran parallel to him for more than a hundred meters, growling destruction, like a frustrated carnivore hunting its prey.

A surge of adrenaline pumped through Max's veins. The lethal risk of riding the edge of this terrifying wave was forgotten as a wild excitement overtook him. He laughed out loud. Come on! Come on! I can beat you. I can win!

A boulder-sized chunk of snow broke loose from the main fall and careered towards him. A sudden reality check. Max arched his back, veered inside the block of snow and felt the swirling edge of the avalanche smother his knees. Don't fall! Not now!

And then it was suddenly over. The monster snowfall smashed only meters away from him onto compacted snow, rocks and the tree line.

Spraying crisp, white powder, Max turned the board side-on and stopped. Looking back, he saw that where he and Sayid had been only moments earlier was now unrecognizable.

The silence was almost as frightening as the short-lived roar of the avalanche. Sayid had skimmed beneath snow-laden branches and gone through to the other side. He was well out of harm's way. Max gulped the cold air. The voice inside his head was still laughing with victory, but Max was under no illusion. If that avalanche had veered his way, he'd have been buried alive and crushed to death.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0036S49DM
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Delacorte Press (June 17, 2010)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 17, 2010
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 969 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 450 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #481,675 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #17 in Teen & Young Adult Extreme Sports Fiction
- #108 in Teen & Young Adult Fiction on Boys' & Men's Issues (Kindle Store)
- #463 in Children's Mystery & Detective Adventure

Customer Reviews:
3.7 94 ratings

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David Gilman

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David Gilman has had an impressive variety of jobs - from firefighter to professional photographer, from soldier in the Parachute Regiment's Reconnaissance Platoon to a Marketing Manager for an international publisher. He has countless radio, television and film credits before turning to novels. From 2000 until 2009 he was a principal writer on A Touch Of Frost and nominated for a BAFTA.

The Englishman is a new thriller series introducing Dan Raglan, a contemporary knight errant who served in French Foreign Legion. The second book in the series, Betrayal will be published on January 6th, 2022.

MASTER OF WAR is the first book of David Gilman’s series that follows the fortunes of Thomas Blackstone, a village stonemason in England sent to fight with King Edward’s army as an archer against the French in 1346. In the bloodiest of conflicts, he discovers friendship, love, and sacrifice but his destiny has yet to be played out. From humble beginnings this common man’s reputation becomes legend. Rich in historical detail, MASTER OF WAR propels the cast of characters on an epic journey through the violence and political intrigue of the 100 Years War.

There are now seven books in the series: following Master of War, Defiant Unto Death, Gate of the Dead, Viper’s Blood, Scourge of Wolves. The 8th book in the series, as yet untitled, is being written.

David is also author of two standalone novels for adults, The Last Horseman, shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Award set during the Boer War and Night Flight to Paris, a WW11 novel that pits a reluctant hero against the Nazi forces in Paris in 1943.

Monkey and Me is written for younger children.

While the DANGER ZONE YA adventure series featuring plucky hero Max Gordon is aimed at YA readers. Each book in the trilogy has a different geographical setting. THE DEVIL’S BREATH won the prestigious French award, Le Prix Polar Jeunesse, was shortlisted for the Manchester Book Award and the Spellbinding Award, nominated for the Carnegie Medal, and picked for the UK government’s recommended reading list for boys. It was also shortlisted for the 2010-2011 Isinglass Teen Read Award in New Hampshire, USA.

He has lived and travelled the world gathering inspiration for his exotic adventure series along the way. Now, David is based in Devonshire, where he lives with his wife, Suzy Chiazzari.

A more complete background can be found on his website www.davidgilman.com/about

Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5

94 global ratings

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Al Miller

Ice CLaw

Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2012

Verified Purchase

A fast paced, well written novel with plausible characters. My only criticism is that Max is more like Superman than a 15-year old boy.There seems to be no physical feat that he is incapable of. Nevertheless, this is delightful read.

Helpful

TeensReadToo

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2011

Gold Star Award Winner!

Max Gordon and his friend, Sayid, are in the French Alps where Max participates in an Xtreme sports challenge. While practicing for the event, Max crosses paths with a monk who dies before his eyes. The monk screams out a clue with his last dying breath after saving Max's life.

Max can't forget the monk. He needs to know who murdered the man and why. With dangerous men after him, he needs help. Luckily, one of the boys he competed against lends him a hand.

Max doesn't give him the full story. He's not sure who to trust. He and Sayid, who is hurt, do their best to unravel the mystery. They can't do much because Max's face is plastered all over the news as a murder suspect.

Can Max clear his name by revealing the true murderers - before those responsible come after everyone in his life?

The sequel to THE DEVIL'S BREATH, ICE CLAW contains the same fast pace, danger, action, and adrenaline rushes as the first book. Again, Max fights against nature, his better judgment, and bad guys to stay alive. He's persistent, smart, determined, good-hearted, and lucky. The first chapter sucked me in and I was hooked for the entire wild ride.

I can't wait for the next DANGER ZONE novel!

Reviewed by: Jennifer Rummel

Helpful

Holed Up In A Book

Especially in the first book where he was in the safari in Africa and got poisoned by a scorpion which literally has like zero c

Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2016

Max Gordon somehow always finds himself in some sort of trouble yet manages to just barely get out of it. Either he’s extremely lucky or extremely talented. Out of all of the three books in this series, I think the first one was actually the weakest one. I didn’t feel drawn into it as much and if it wasn’t for the fact that I didn’t realize that I had originally picked up the second book and was getting into it then realize that it wasn’t the first book, I might not have even finished Devil’s Breath. I still think the second book, Ice Claw, was the most intriguing one with the last book a close second.

While I have definitely more action-packed and “keeping my butt at the edge of my seat” kind of books, I do think Max Gordon and his adventures are quite interesting as well. The main reason is because he always finds himself in a crazy situation (i.e. finding himself at the mercy of a lion/tiger or trying to escape or enter a compound by getting through some whirling blades, etc.) yet somehow always gets out of it. Especially in the first book where he was in the safari in Africa and got poisoned by a scorpion which literally has like zero chance of survival, he somehow survives. Or the part where he was able to turn himself to a jaguar or bear to get out of situations. I mean, it was mentioned how he was able to do that but it wasn’t particularly clear. It was just crazy to see how a teenage boy was able to overcome such tough situations or outsmart a professional killer (multiples times!).

The one thing I have to say that I didn’t particularly enjoy was the writing style. For the most part, it was fine but there were multiples times when the author would purposely be like “Max was in the river and was not paying attention to what was lurking behind him. A crocodile was slowly sneaking up on him and suddenly its jaws sprang open and tear into flesh.” And that’s how he ends the chapter. So obviously when you read that, you’re like “oh shit! The crocodile totally bit into Max.” And then you turn the page and it’s like “JK, the crocodile bit into the dead body that JUST SO HAPPENED to be floating next to Max.” I mean, what are the chances of that? It was just so annoying and such a letdown half the time not because I wanted Max to get hurt but I wanted to know what would happen if he did get hurt because that would seem a lot more realistic.

The one thing I can say about Max is that he is extremely resourceful and intelligent. There were times he had to get himself out of tight places or he had to help his friend get out of tight places and he would come up with an idea that I think that most people would not have thought of. It also helped that he spent the last few years at that private school where the students were taught a lot of survival skills and basic training. Though it was never really described what exactly they were training for or why the school thought these skills were necessary. To be honest, the school that he went to sounded like one of those spy schools where they train the students to become spies or whatever.

Overall, I did find the series to be interesting. There were just a few things about the overall series that could have been better and would therefore have made the books so much better. However, if you have time and you’re into survival/adventure/thriller books, give these books a chance.

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Helpful

DW

Your Average Adventure Novel

Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2014

Max Gordon seems to be capable of anything. This book was similar to Alex Rider. However, it was still quite an enjoyable read!

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2011

Visit Greatest Books for Kids ([...]) for more great book suggestions.

Read aloud: age 10 - 11 and older.
Read yourself: age 11 - 12 and older.

Teenager Max Gordon is a competitor in an X-treme sports challenge. Max is snowboarding alone high in the French Pyrenees when, not far away, a bald-headed monk skies furiously across the face of the mountain with enormous skill. Pursuing the monk is another expert skier, who aims his rifle and shoots the monk. As Max tries to help the monk, an avalanche is barreling towards them. In that instant, the monk screams some cryptic words, then tears a medallion with its cord off his neck, throws it at Max, and succumbs to the avalanche and his death.
Piecing clues together, Max is embroiled in a mystery that predicts a violent ecological event that will kill millions of people across Europe. What does the monk have to do with any of this? Why is it that everyone Max thinks he can trust he can't? And why is Max Gordon being accused of murdering the monk? Will Max be able to stay alive long enough to solve the mystery and avert the needless slaughter of millions of innocent people?
As fast-paced, unnerving, and action-packed as any novel for young adults can be, "Ice Claw" will grip you from the first page straight through to the last. Fans of James Patterson novels and Jason Bourne movies, be prepared: "Ice Claw" is a wild and exciting read in simply every regard.

Helpful

Keith

Highly recommended for boys and girls!

Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2010

What a rip-roaring read, Max is at his best again battling an evil villain! From the first to the last page the reader is kept on the edge of their seat by the non stop action. Max is faced with what at first seems to be insurmountable odds against his survival, but through his abilities, mental and supernatural, manages to transcend almost impossible odds. David Gilman weaves many interesting facts into all of his novels and also inspires teens, boys and girls, to confront diversity with logic, resourcefulness, courage and determination. I highly recommend this novel as an unforgettable read.

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Top reviews from other countries

Mr. Jay

Not for older folk, alright for teens.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 13, 2020

Verified Purchase

I read all his novels, but if i had known it was aimed at the younger market would not have purchased.

Julie Johnson-begg

Sequel delivers a wild ride

Reviewed in Australia on September 23, 2019

Verified Purchase

Ice Claw is as exciting as the debut novel - futuristic concept blended with fact makes this a great read for young and old. Can’t wait to read Book Three

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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

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David Gilman

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