Mr. Kiss and Tell

Mr. Kiss and Tell (Veronica Mars #2) by Rob Thomas (2015), narrated by Rebecca Lowman

A young woman, close to death, was found in a field after being raped and beaten. She had been a guest at the Neptune Grand and when she regained part of her memory she accused a staff person from the hotel of the crime. The hotel hired Veronica Mars to investigate the claim, which is especially difficult since the afore-mentioned staff person has already been deported so Veronica can't talk to him. The victim herself, someone Veronica knows from her past, also isn't speaking much, refusing to tell Veronica who she was meeting at the hotel that night. With so few witnesses and a victim who won't talk, it's a tough case to crack, but of course we know that Veronica will get to the bottom of it.

The victim is Grace Manning, younger sister of Meg who died after the bus accident in season 2, leaving behind a newborn fathered by Veronica's ex-boyfriend Duncan Kane. Veronica remembers finding Grace as a child locked in a closet in her house by her religious fundamentalist parents. Now Grace is a young woman, an aspiring actress, and she won't say who her mysterious boyfriend is so that Veronica can talk to him about the parts of the evening that Grace can't remember.

Veronica enlists the help of her friend Mac and they spend a lot of time with security footage and hotel guest lists until they come up with a likely suspect. The tricky thing is that the person smuggled the unconscious Grace out of the hotel without it being on any of the footage, but these are smart women so they have a pretty good theory about how it happened. The hard part is finding evidence to support that theory, and as usual Veronica encounters a lot of surprises along the way and ends up in some fairly dangerous situations.

Meanwhile, Logan is on leave from the Navy and they are enjoying their time together. But when a tragedy occurs aboard his ship, he may be called back early and this causes some stress in their relationship. I fear it will never be smooth sailing for this couple, but at least this situation didn't have the drama that their early relationship did. Oh, and they got a puppy! That was a fun part of the story.

I thought this was a little better than the first book, The Thousand Dollar Tan Line. It was a more interesting mystery with a more satisfying conclusion and I think the plot was better crafted. Rebecca Lowman is one of my very favorite narrators and I'm always happy to listen to her. Some people who reviewed this on Audible seem to hate her and it's true that she reads very differently than Kristen Bell, but she's still great. And it didn't have the awkward feeling that Veronica Mars is talking about herself in third person. All in all, this was a very fun and satisfying book to listen to and now I feel prepared to watched the new season of Veronica Mars when it comes out later this month.

The Thousand Dollar Tan Line

The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line (Veronica Mars #1) by Rob Thomas (2014), narrated by Kristen Bell

Bear with me while I prepare for the return of this excellent show in July. I've rewatched all the original episodes, watched the movie, and now just need to listen to both of the books. One down, one to go!

It's spring break in Neptune, and the partiers have descended. But when a young woman disappears, it's bad PR for the town and Veronica is hired by the Chamber of Commerce to help find her. It's only complicated more when a second girl disappears. Veronica's investigation takes her to a mansion belonging to two very dangerous men, and also involves someone from her past.

This felt very much like watching an episode of the show, which makes sense since the same person writes it. It was so much fun to revisit Neptune and its inhabitants. Logan is away during this book and although he and Veronica Skype, their relationship isn't really in the foreground. What is, is her family because one of the missing girls is related to a family member she hasn't been in touch with and this brings up a lot of interesting developments.

I've got a couple of really minor criticisms. One is that I thought Veronica figured out way too many things near the end that didn't really have clues. She's smart - I get it - and often puts things together that I don't see, but it just seemed to happen far too much here, and with things that didn't always have real clues. The other tiny issue I had is that the title of the book is kind of a red herring and I don't know why it was chosen. But neither of these things really diminished my enjoyment of the story. I didn't have a ton of expectations, to be honest, because even though I know that Rob Thomas is a real writer who has written at least one book before, this is a book based on a TV show and somehow I just don't expect a lot from that kind of thing. (His young adult novel, Rats Saw God, was very good, by the way.)

Of course Kristen Bell is the perfect person to narrate since she's the voice of Veronica Mars herself. Since the book is written in third person it sounds like Veronica is talking about herself in third person, but that was only weird for a short time and I got over it. Hearing her voice added to the feeling I already had that I was immersed in another episode of the show. Because it's already a show I pictured everyone the way they appeared on screen and it just made it feel all the more real.

I've heard from a friend that the second book is better so I'm really looking forward to it. It's narrated by my favorite audiobook reader, Rebecca Lowman. The reviews on Audible aren't great, I think because her voice is so different from that of Kristen Bell. Hopefully that won't impact my experience.