In the Red Zone: Deep Zone by Tim Green

Ty built up a sizable sweat by he time they reached the mangrove creek. Halfway through, he heard something slithering through the limbs above and knew it was a Burmese python. Ty dug in even harder, and in his excitement, banged a paddle blade against a mangrove root, showering them with spider crabs.

Ty felt one scurry down his neck and into the open collar of his shirt. He lurched sideways, swatting at the disgusting crab. When he did, he heard two splashes.

The first was Troy dumping into the creek.

The second was the hungry python up ahead sensing easy prey in the water, and dropping in after it.

How does a Football Genius and a Football Hero, not to mention the cute girl they both have their eyes on, wind up in a two-man kayak in the Everglades, fleeing from ten-foot alligators, Burmese pythons, and Mafia hit men, with spider crabs down their backs?

Well might you ask.

Tim Green's latest addition to his hit series Football Genius pulls out all the suspense thriller stops in this sequel, Deep Zone (Football Genius) (Harper). Green brings together his two twelve-year-old phenoms, Troy White, the football genius whose knowledge and quarterback abilities enable him to intuit any move by the opposing team, and Ty Lewis, the extraordinarily speedy receiver whose brother Tiger is both a rookie Ravens standout and his court-appointed guardian.

Ty and Tiger are already on edge as their Uncle Gus, in the FBI's witness protection program for the past year, comes to town to testify against the mobster don in the gambling scandal that was the subject of Green's best-selling Football Hero: A Football Genius Novel.. Fearing that hired Mafia assassin Bennie the Blade may try to intimidate Gus by kidnapping or killing Ty, FBI agents put both of them under surveillance.

But Ty and Tiger hope to escape the tension in Baltimore when Ty makes the prestigious 7 on 7 playoff team and the two head for Miami for the nationally televised final game. There Ty meets up with his rival Troy White, who is the mastermind behind the Georgia team that is the Raptors' major competition. Troy's mom has brought along his pretty, place-kicking friend Tate, and soon the two boys are in competition on more than just the football arena.

But all that football and young man's fancy is fun and games when the three find themselves indeed in deep, allies against the Mafia contract killers that capture them at midnight in the mangrove swamp and unfortunately find themselves trying to decide which is the worst--Bennie the Blade, the Burmese python, or the man-eating giant 'gators in the dark water.

Tim Green offers not only exciting game play, but a page-riffling thriller in this fifth book in his super-star series, Deep Zone (Football Genius). Nobody will be a reluctant reader once they get to the second page of this suspenseful sequel to an already mega-hot series, which offers a tantalizing surprise ending and more than just a hint that there will be a follow-up book to come. Green, a best-selling author of both adult fiction and non-fiction, shows he has the literary genius moves to keep sports fans reading yet again.