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Deep Creek Lake #2
Crash Landing
Kelly and a group of friends head to the mountains for a ski trip, despite terrifying memories of a weekend being stalked by a killer and the death of a close friend, but Kelly's glimpse of a familiar face strikes panic in her heart and a returned fear of a crazed killer. Original.
187 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1996
59 people want to read
About the author
Nicole Davidson
17 books13 followersNicole Davidson is a pen name for Kathryn Jensen.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 18, 2017
This is the sequel to "Crash Course", which was terrible. Surprisingly, "Crash Landing" is quite an improvement! All the kids from the first book (minus the one who was killed, and his killer) head off to the same cabin and lake from the original for spring break. There was no real point in having all the characters from the first one return, as most of them aren't really given anything to do, and the mystery isn't related to the events from the first book.
The plot explanation contains mild spoilers!
Despite displaying many of the idiocies to be expected from mid-90s YA thrillers, this moves along quickly. I was taken by surprise at which character got murdered and I didn't figure out who the killer was! Certainly not the best teen thriller you'll read, but it's leagues ahead of the original!
The plot explanation contains mild spoilers!
Despite displaying many of the idiocies to be expected from mid-90s YA thrillers, this moves along quickly. I was taken by surprise at which character got murdered and I didn't figure out who the killer was! Certainly not the best teen thriller you'll read, but it's leagues ahead of the original!
January 18, 2025
The sequel to Crash Course, our protag Kelly returns to Deep Creek Lake for a class ski trip but like WHY. The trauma of your best friend dying there a few years back and almost being murdered yourself there isn't enough to keep you away? 😅
The book brings back all of the characters from the first book and few new faces, when another murder takes place. It seems like the killer is trying to frame Kelly for the murder so she's gotta figure out who it is before someone else gets hurt.
Silly gripes and mild spoilers:
- There is SO MUCH SKIING. Kelly slaloms and wedges and does all the fancy schmancy moves on the black diamond trail for many many paragraphs 🤣⛷
-There are several times when Kelly's "upper lip beads with sweat", eww.
-
Ultimately not my favorite by author Nicole Davidson..that honor goes to The Stalker. So go read that one instead 😆
The book brings back all of the characters from the first book and few new faces, when another murder takes place. It seems like the killer is trying to frame Kelly for the murder so she's gotta figure out who it is before someone else gets hurt.
Silly gripes and mild spoilers:
- There is SO MUCH SKIING. Kelly slaloms and wedges and does all the fancy schmancy moves on the black diamond trail for many many paragraphs 🤣⛷
-There are several times when Kelly's "upper lip beads with sweat", eww.
-
Ultimately not my favorite by author Nicole Davidson..that honor goes to The Stalker. So go read that one instead 😆
June 15, 2016
This was better than part one but not by much. One of the good things I can say is that Nicole Davidson seemed to somewhat learn her lesson by 1996. In 1990's Crash Course, she practically made Chris out to be a giant piece of charcoal with a violent personality.
In Crash Landing, Chris's dark complexion is only mentioned once, and his big wide nose and thick black fingers are no longer of importance. (I still can't get over the thick black fingers line.)
Anyhoo, I thought this book was going to be more about Kelly thinking Paula had returned, but there was little of that, she should have just stuck to that angle.
A murder was committed, and some of the worst cops I've come across in a while were handling the case. After the murder, the kids continued on with the spring break ski trip as if a murder having happened in their cabin was nothing worth canceling the trip over. No parents were called, other than Kelly's father towards the end of the book. The chaperones never once suggested packing up and going home.
The story has nothing to do with the first book other than many of the same kids appearing, there was no Deep Creek Lake Curse that would not die, as the tagline says.
In Crash Landing, Chris's dark complexion is only mentioned once, and his big wide nose and thick black fingers are no longer of importance. (I still can't get over the thick black fingers line.)
Anyhoo, I thought this book was going to be more about Kelly thinking Paula had returned, but there was little of that, she should have just stuck to that angle.
A murder was committed, and some of the worst cops I've come across in a while were handling the case. After the murder, the kids continued on with the spring break ski trip as if a murder having happened in their cabin was nothing worth canceling the trip over. No parents were called, other than Kelly's father towards the end of the book. The chaperones never once suggested packing up and going home.
The story has nothing to do with the first book other than many of the same kids appearing, there was no Deep Creek Lake Curse that would not die, as the tagline says.
November 7, 2025
Honestly, I’m only giving this two stars because at least it is grammatically correct.
November 11, 2024
* 1 year ago Kelly's best friend Brian died by drowning in a lake at a ski resort, his girlfriend wanted them both to commit suicide then changed her mind, and Brian ended up dead.
* Kelly is now back at the same ski resort on a school trip, and she's feeling a bit sad about Brian's death.
* Brian's girlfriend Paula turns up claiming that she's been let out of the psychiatric facility to try and come to terms with Brian's death.
* Paula and Kelly try to make nice and be friends, but then Paula is found stabbed in the chest. Some people think that Kelly is to blame because she might have held a grudge because of Brian's death.
* The police arrest Kelly, but then tell her that she's not really under arrest, they just did that because someone was trying to convince them that Kelly was the murderer, and they wanted to try and flush out the real killer.
* They have to let Kelly go after 72 hours, but then she's skiing and someone tries to kill her with a snowmobile.
* She goes back to the lodge and later sees her teacher's husband leaving the lodge in the night. She follows him and basically finds him digging up guns from a sandpit. This boy called Will then turns up, and it seems that the guns belong to him - he's been selling guns to kids in schools!
* Luckily - Troy - the undercover cop rescues them, and Kelly decides not to comeback to this ski resort again 😂
* Kelly is now back at the same ski resort on a school trip, and she's feeling a bit sad about Brian's death.
* Brian's girlfriend Paula turns up claiming that she's been let out of the psychiatric facility to try and come to terms with Brian's death.
* Paula and Kelly try to make nice and be friends, but then Paula is found stabbed in the chest. Some people think that Kelly is to blame because she might have held a grudge because of Brian's death.
* The police arrest Kelly, but then tell her that she's not really under arrest, they just did that because someone was trying to convince them that Kelly was the murderer, and they wanted to try and flush out the real killer.
* They have to let Kelly go after 72 hours, but then she's skiing and someone tries to kill her with a snowmobile.
* She goes back to the lodge and later sees her teacher's husband leaving the lodge in the night. She follows him and basically finds him digging up guns from a sandpit. This boy called Will then turns up, and it seems that the guns belong to him - he's been selling guns to kids in schools!
* Luckily - Troy - the undercover cop rescues them, and Kelly decides not to comeback to this ski resort again 😂
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 23, 2023
I actually did really like this book better than Crash Course.
Between that one and this one, Davidson got better with toning down some things that were not very PC before.
For those who have not read Crash Course, there will be some spoilers for that book but I will try not to spoil this one...hopefully.
In the first book, a bunch of high school juniors went away to study for taking their ACT at a cabin by a place called Deep Creek Lake near a place called Mount Wisp. One of them drowned in the lake around Thanksgiving when it took place.
His name was Brian Lopez and it was an accident. His girlfriend Paula Schultz couldn't stand the thought of them both going separate ways and thought a suicide pact of drowning in the lake would be romantic.
She changed her mind and Brian lost his footing, falling into the icy water. He could have made it but he had filled his pockets with rocks, wanting to try and stop Paula by changing her mind in the worst way possible.
Paula freaked out and tried to make it sound like someone attacked them. Too bad that fellow student Nathan found out the truth. She went a little crazy and tried to kill him.
Then Brian's childhood bestie Kelly Peterson, a girl mind you, figured out it was Paula too. Paula tried to kill Kelly out of jealousy that she and Brian were so close. Being friends since the third grade and never dating should have let Paula know this was a bad idea.
Nathan and Kelly survived and Paula was going to be put on trial for almost killing them and Brian's "accidental" death. Paula's parents had her examined by a psychiatrist and she was found not to be mentally sound for a trail.
They locked her up in a mental hospital to receive treatment instead.
This doesn't really comfort Kelly that much even now after only five months.
She lost her best friend and can't even think about ever forgiving Paula for taking Brian from her.
Never mind that she still has her father or her other friends she made at the cabin or even her boyfriend, Jeff Mitchell.
Being part of the Ski Club, Kelly loses out on a vote. They didn't have enough money to go to Vermont and Deep Creek Lake has great skiing this time of year.
Their teacher, Annette Riley, doesn't know what exactly happened and she tries to comfort Kelly once she gets the girl to open up instead of prying it out Jeff. She's their chaperone and Annette knows about tragedy.
Her husband Frank was in a skiing accident and became paralyzed from his waist down. He handles his handicap well but he has a bit of a temper and they are always fighting in front of the kids.
Charming.
Angel, Chris, Isabel and Nathan are also there with the only new face being Will Tanner. He is handsome and popular with the girls but has a thing for breaking hearts.
Chris is off the steroids thanks to Isabel being a great girlfriend and Angel went from being all creepy Goth girl in black to a full on believer in angels...I'm not sure which one is better or worse and neither are the others.
Angel went out with Nathan for awhile but his smoking cigarettes and pot and drinking, hanging out with the wrong crowd a thousand times worse than his alcoholic dad on a bender broke them up.
Two boys are found at the cabin when the others come back from skiing and Frank has pulled a knife on them. They say someone stole the prescription ski goggles of one of the boys and they were just checking out all the other cabins to find them.
That had to be a pretty lame excuse but soon things are semi-smoothed out and we find the names of the boys are handsome Troy York and the more geeky Jeremy Potter.
As if that wasn't enough, Kelly is sure that a face on the slopes looks familiar and soon we find out it is Paula.
She has come to the lake as part of therapy to say her goodbyes to Brian...she's cured.
Kelly soon realizes that she can't be mad at Paula anymore and her own healing begins despite the others being a little leary at first...especially Nathan, you know. When it seems like the worst is now behind Kelly and Paula that they can all move on, the tragedy just can't stay away.
Maybe the lake is cursed when Paula's body is found bloody and stabbed on the cabin floor...
We get a story that is much more suspenseful because most of the characters know the newest victim and two of them have pretty good reasons to want Paula dead. The first book they were all mostly strangers to each other even going to the same high school or transfering to there.
Now there is now a bond and to think that one of them could be behind it makes the tension palpable. There is also new characters introduced to have some more red herrings and you aren't really sure if you can even trust the original characters.
We get some teenage drama as well with love triangles breeding jealousy and even Kelly suffering from a little bit of an eating disorder in her grief of losing Brian. Once we get the police officers thrown in when Paula is found murdered or possibly even a suicide, the tension becomes even more thick.
There isn't too much more I could tell without completely spoiling Crash Landing but it gets pretty wild and crazy. There are plenty of twists and reveals to blow your mind.
The climax is intense and leads to an ending that has a right to actually be bittersweet in the face of loss and the truth that you can move on from tragedy to find happiness and even laugh again.
If you haven't read this book or Crash Course or either one I would recommend the first to get an idea of just how much character growth there is in this book. The first was good but Crash Landing is so much better.
Between that one and this one, Davidson got better with toning down some things that were not very PC before.
For those who have not read Crash Course, there will be some spoilers for that book but I will try not to spoil this one...hopefully.
In the first book, a bunch of high school juniors went away to study for taking their ACT at a cabin by a place called Deep Creek Lake near a place called Mount Wisp. One of them drowned in the lake around Thanksgiving when it took place.
His name was Brian Lopez and it was an accident. His girlfriend Paula Schultz couldn't stand the thought of them both going separate ways and thought a suicide pact of drowning in the lake would be romantic.
She changed her mind and Brian lost his footing, falling into the icy water. He could have made it but he had filled his pockets with rocks, wanting to try and stop Paula by changing her mind in the worst way possible.
Paula freaked out and tried to make it sound like someone attacked them. Too bad that fellow student Nathan found out the truth. She went a little crazy and tried to kill him.
Then Brian's childhood bestie Kelly Peterson, a girl mind you, figured out it was Paula too. Paula tried to kill Kelly out of jealousy that she and Brian were so close. Being friends since the third grade and never dating should have let Paula know this was a bad idea.
Nathan and Kelly survived and Paula was going to be put on trial for almost killing them and Brian's "accidental" death. Paula's parents had her examined by a psychiatrist and she was found not to be mentally sound for a trail.
They locked her up in a mental hospital to receive treatment instead.
This doesn't really comfort Kelly that much even now after only five months.
She lost her best friend and can't even think about ever forgiving Paula for taking Brian from her.
Never mind that she still has her father or her other friends she made at the cabin or even her boyfriend, Jeff Mitchell.
Being part of the Ski Club, Kelly loses out on a vote. They didn't have enough money to go to Vermont and Deep Creek Lake has great skiing this time of year.
Their teacher, Annette Riley, doesn't know what exactly happened and she tries to comfort Kelly once she gets the girl to open up instead of prying it out Jeff. She's their chaperone and Annette knows about tragedy.
Her husband Frank was in a skiing accident and became paralyzed from his waist down. He handles his handicap well but he has a bit of a temper and they are always fighting in front of the kids.
Charming.
Angel, Chris, Isabel and Nathan are also there with the only new face being Will Tanner. He is handsome and popular with the girls but has a thing for breaking hearts.
Chris is off the steroids thanks to Isabel being a great girlfriend and Angel went from being all creepy Goth girl in black to a full on believer in angels...I'm not sure which one is better or worse and neither are the others.
Angel went out with Nathan for awhile but his smoking cigarettes and pot and drinking, hanging out with the wrong crowd a thousand times worse than his alcoholic dad on a bender broke them up.
Two boys are found at the cabin when the others come back from skiing and Frank has pulled a knife on them. They say someone stole the prescription ski goggles of one of the boys and they were just checking out all the other cabins to find them.
That had to be a pretty lame excuse but soon things are semi-smoothed out and we find the names of the boys are handsome Troy York and the more geeky Jeremy Potter.
As if that wasn't enough, Kelly is sure that a face on the slopes looks familiar and soon we find out it is Paula.
She has come to the lake as part of therapy to say her goodbyes to Brian...she's cured.
Kelly soon realizes that she can't be mad at Paula anymore and her own healing begins despite the others being a little leary at first...especially Nathan, you know. When it seems like the worst is now behind Kelly and Paula that they can all move on, the tragedy just can't stay away.
Maybe the lake is cursed when Paula's body is found bloody and stabbed on the cabin floor...
We get a story that is much more suspenseful because most of the characters know the newest victim and two of them have pretty good reasons to want Paula dead. The first book they were all mostly strangers to each other even going to the same high school or transfering to there.
Now there is now a bond and to think that one of them could be behind it makes the tension palpable. There is also new characters introduced to have some more red herrings and you aren't really sure if you can even trust the original characters.
We get some teenage drama as well with love triangles breeding jealousy and even Kelly suffering from a little bit of an eating disorder in her grief of losing Brian. Once we get the police officers thrown in when Paula is found murdered or possibly even a suicide, the tension becomes even more thick.
There isn't too much more I could tell without completely spoiling Crash Landing but it gets pretty wild and crazy. There are plenty of twists and reveals to blow your mind.
The climax is intense and leads to an ending that has a right to actually be bittersweet in the face of loss and the truth that you can move on from tragedy to find happiness and even laugh again.
If you haven't read this book or Crash Course or either one I would recommend the first to get an idea of just how much character growth there is in this book. The first was good but Crash Landing is so much better.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 24, 2025
Probably better than her other similarly themed winter horror book Winterkill which was written earlier. But the writing doesn’t flow as well as Stine. The pacing was pretty slow.
Agree with other reviewers. SO MUCH SKIING!! Really all they did was ski.
Trigger warning for ED. It was a really unnecessary addition to the plot. But very 90s. How the FMC could do so much skiing, black diamonds at that, and not eat I don’t know.
There are dr*gs. G*ns. M*rder. Very D.A.R.E. The k*ller is someone who’s barely in it.
Published in 1996.
Agree with other reviewers. SO MUCH SKIING!! Really all they did was ski.
Trigger warning for ED. It was a really unnecessary addition to the plot. But very 90s. How the FMC could do so much skiing, black diamonds at that, and not eat I don’t know.
There are dr*gs. G*ns. M*rder. Very D.A.R.E. The k*ller is someone who’s barely in it.
Published in 1996.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 22, 2022
An okay, mildly more engaging follow-up that uses a sledgehammer to touch on the nineties era's very anti-drug and anti-gang ethos. It's very much like an episode of 21 Jump Street but set at a ski resort.
September 7, 2023
This is the third of Nicole Davidson’s novels I’ve read, the first being winterkill and the second crash course
I wouldn’t say this was a sequel to crash course but many of the same characters are in it
As young adult fiction goes these are pretty good
I wouldn’t say this was a sequel to crash course but many of the same characters are in it
As young adult fiction goes these are pretty good
October 19, 2014
I picked this up at a library book sale, as it was one of the few books there that was not romance. I was glad I did, as I had not read it when it had come out. The author did a good job of keeping us guessing (though we figured Troy out early on) and it was a nice, quick (two-night) read.
The description above is not entirely accurate, though. There is only one murder in this book. The death that the characters refer to actually happened in the prequel to this book, "Crash Course".
I would recommend this book. Even though it is geared to a young adult and/or teen audience, the story can be enjoyed by all age brackets.
The description above is not entirely accurate, though. There is only one murder in this book. The death that the characters refer to actually happened in the prequel to this book, "Crash Course".
I would recommend this book. Even though it is geared to a young adult and/or teen audience, the story can be enjoyed by all age brackets.
September 1, 2013
My favorite book as a teenager
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