THE THOUSAND-DOLLAR TAN LINE – Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham

I love my library.

In case you couldn’t tell, I’m a pretty voracious reader. I read at almost every opportunity. And when I’m driving, if I’m not listening to NPR, I’m listening to a book. My local library offers a wide variety of books on CD as well digital audio books. This was one of the digital audio books I listened to recently.

I watched the Veronica Mars series and it enjoyed it well enough. I’ve always been one to like reading books that tie-in to a series, but have been generally disappointed with the mystery genre media-tie-ins, so I went in to this hesitantly. Fortunately I was quickly brought in to the story and caught up in the interactions between the characters.

Veronica Mars is back in Neptune, California, ten years after graduating from high school there. She’s gone to school and earned a law degree but has given it up in order to work for Mars Investigations. But times are lean for the business and some of the help are starting to look for other work. Veronica’s father is recovering and not 100% yet, so Veronica is taking on the bulk of the work – slight as it may be.

But it’s Spring Break and Neptune is hopping with college co-eds. When one goes missing, a local reporter condemns the local sheriff for not doing enough to find the missing girl. The local chamber of commerce, knowing how incompetent the sheriff is, hires Veronica to find the girl in order to keep Neptune a safe destination for the cash-spending students. When a second girl goes missing, Veronica comes face to face with an uncomfortable part of her past.

This really was a delightful read/listen. It helps TREMENDOUSLY to have the TV Veronica Mars – Kristen Bell – doing the narration. She clearly understands the character and gives us the ‘Veronica’ that we already know and love. And having the creator, Rob Thomas, a part of the story, also gives us some consistency with the character development.

The mystery itself is fairly solid, though it doesn’t really surprise (did anyone out there NOT see the end well before it happened?) – it reads just like a television mystery, without too much depth and a stock (Mexican Cartel) red-herring. Still it kept me engaged and interested.

Looking for a good book? I recommend The Thousand Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham – specifically the audio book with Kristen Bell’s narration – for anyone who enjoyed the Veronica Mars television series, and anyone who enjoys an easy read but delicious mystery.