Veronica Mars Review: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas & Jennifer Graham

Title: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line (Veronica Mars, #1)

Author: Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham

Publisher: Random House Canada
Publication date: March 25, 2014

Genre(s): Chick Lit (Contemporary/Mystery)

Source: Publisher

Format: Finished Copy

Pages: 324

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indigo

From Rob Thomas, the creator of the television series and movie phenomenon Veronica Mars, comes the first book in a thrilling mystery series that picks up where the feature film left off. 

Ten years after graduating from high school in Neptune, California, Veronica Mars is back in the land of sun, sand, crime, and corruption. She’s traded in her law degree for her old private investigating license, struggling to keep Mars Investigations afloat on the scant cash earned by catching cheating spouses until she can score her first big case.

Now it’s spring break, and college students descend on Neptune, transforming the beaches and boardwalks into a frenzied, week-long rave. When a girl disappears from a party, Veronica is called in to investigate. But this is no simple missing person’s case; the house the girl vanished from belongs to a man with serious criminal ties, and soon Veronica is plunged into a dangerous underworld of drugs and organized crime. And when a major break in the investigation has a shocking connection to Veronica’s past, the case hits closer to home than she ever imagined.

Oh Veronica Mars… I read this novel, The One Thousand Tan Line right after I came back from watching the movie (which was amazing!) and I must let you know that I’m a die hard Veronica Mars fan, ever since it was airing back in 2004 till it got canceled in 2007 (that year was pretty dark for me). I have re-watched the show (which is only three seasons) so many times I honestly can’t recall the exact number. I feel an introduction to the show is needed in order to be able to really tell you how much I loved the novel. 

The show opens up a year after Veronica Mars’s best friend, Lily Kane, was murdered. The killer wasn’t caught but Veronica is adamant on finding and putting him/her to justice. It is Veronica’s junior year and she is a loner. Her dad, the ex-sheriff accused Lily’s dad of the murder and that didn’t bode well, especially since he’s the owner of Kane Software, a multi billion-dollar cooperation. So her dad got demoted and Veronica’s ‘friends’, aka: rich group she hung out with because of Lily, cast her away. Veronica now works for her dad, who’s a PI, and solves small cases every episode while still trying to solve her best friend’s murder (gets resolved end of season 1, then a new mystery for season 2 and then 3). This show is full of fantastic and quick dialogue that makes me crack up constantly. I love all the secondary characters like her new friends Wallace and Mac, her daughter-father dynamic with her dad, Keith, as well as some 09ers (rich kids) like Logan and even “the obligatory jack***” Dick, but most of all, I love Veronica. I love how tough she is and how she took a crappy situation and toughened up because of it, made a way for herself. She was never a frustrating character and seemed so real in how she handled things, she was very logical and smart, a true role model for girls. 

Now fast-forward to the movie, which is set 9 years after the end of the third season and boy was it everything I wanted it to be. I was, along with all the VM fans, disappointed with how open the ending was of the show but this was the chocolate cake that we’ve been craving forever and it seriously hit the spot. Then comes the novel grins and it is set two months after the movie. I had a few doubts about how the dialogue and how well the show will translate into a novel but I shouldn’t have worried, especially with Rob Thomas’s (producer) name on the novel too. As soon as I started reading it I was transported back to Neptune and it felt like a smooth continuation from where the movie ended. The dialogue was as good as the motion pictures and the mystery was also as unpredictable as always. I am seriously happy with this novel. It is the perfect thing that filled my post Veronica Mars movie depression. I also love how in the novels the possibility of bringing back older characters (which was done!) is open. You get a constant blast from the past and it really makes me connect more with Veronica’s world and Neptune. 

I do have to say that Veronica’s love interest was missing from most of the novel and I cried a little inside because I love him so much (will not reveal who he is because of any non VM watchers out there). I do know when he returns it will be epic and I can’t wait to get to know more about what he’s been up to the past nine years and just what the next stage of both Veronica and his relationship will be about. Obviously 9 years didn’t really change them and if the recurring trouble in paradise they’ve faced over the show is any future indication of what is to come, I am up for it… though under one condition, that the end result is both of them together! I LoVe them too much <3