Mars Investigations

It's been a long time since I've read a "tie-in novel," though there was a time many, many years ago when every other book I read for fun was a Star Trek book, and Star Wars novels were the only thing that universe had beyond the original movie trilogy. Even though I feel there's no reason to be snobbish about such fiction -- Peter David and Timothy Zahn, for example, wrote some great material in those two universes -- I just sort of drifted away from it.

Still, there have been a couple of tie-in books on the outer edge of my radar for some time: two Veronica Mars mysteries written by Jennifer Graham, based on stories by the creator of the television series, Rob Thomas. These were published in 2014 and 2015, right on the heels of the movie (the first revival of the original show). Until the recent Hulu season continued the series once again, these novels were the only way to get another fix of the great show I loved in the mid-2000s. And yet... I just never made time for them.

When I finally did recently dive into the first book, The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line, I was thoroughly entertained. It picks up in the weeks after the movie, and delivers everything you'd want in a Veronica Mars story. It feels exactly like the sort of season-long mystery the show would have tackled in its original run, with twists and turns, red herrings and fun clues. Nearly all the major and minor series characters make an appearance. It's not a mystery so clever it will blow your mind, and you almost certainly have to have watched the show to get at all excited over it... but it's a solid tale that will scratch your nostalgic itch.

Adding to the enjoyment, though, was the fact that I "read" The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line as an audiobook. And it's narrated by none other than Kristen Bell herself. Since the show itself featured plenty of film noir voice-over from the title character, having the actual Veronica Mars narrate this story only increases the authenticity. Bell's just a solid actor in all her work, and she slips back into her first big role with ease.

She also slips into everyone else's, in a really fun way. Audiobook listeners know the fun of a narrator who really performs voices for other characters, and Kristen Bell does so here. It might have been awkward for her to mimic actors she's actually worked with... but then, she'd be the one to have seen them up close over years of work. When she performs Keith, or Logan, or Mac, or Weevil, or Wallace, she's really channeling them. You can see it in your mind's eye. The only thing missing for it to be the complete Veronica Mars experience is a 30-second burst of "We Used to Be Friends" at the end of the Prologue chapter.

If you were just to read the book itself? That's probably a B, I'd imagine? But the top notch reading from Kristen Bell really elevates it, to a B+... maybe even an A- if you've just gotta have more Veronica Mars. If you're a fan of the series who hasn't listened, you're missing out.