Veronica Mars returns to her roots in more ways than one in her first novel, “The Thousand Dollar Tan Line,” continuing from the events of the movie, which hit DVD earlier this month. As we saw in the movie, she’s back in Neptune and determined to make a go of it as a full-time detective at Mars Investigations, but the film left us with an uneasy relationship between daughter and father. Keith would have preferred that she stick with lawyering, where she’d be safer.
And even though this is the first novel for the franchise, it could be argued that “Veronica Mars” is very much at home in this medium, since the hardboiled genre got its start as pulp novels back in the 1920s, then transitioned to film and TV. Certainly, it helps that “Tan Line” is co-written by show creator Rob Thomas. Every character’s speech and behavior is pitch-perfect. Since this is a TV/movie tie-in novel, one would assume that co-writer Jennifer Graham did the writing while Thomas just provided the plot, but I’m not so sure. In addition to his TV successes, Thomas is also a respected young-adult fiction writer. So either he did a lot of the writing or Graham really knows her “Veronica Mars,” or both. There isn’t a moment in this book that I couldn’t imagine occurring in a TV episode or film, and I suspect it plays very well as an audio book read by Kristen Bell.
This is not your typical plot-over-characterization tie-in novel, as it’s filled with significant events in the characters’ lives. As with the movie, it’s centered on Keith and Veronica, so fans of supporting characters might be disappointed. Mac helps in her new capacity as office secretary/accountant/hacker; Wallace assists on some undercover stuff; Veronica skypes with Logan, who is off on a Navy deployment; and Dick makes an amusing cameo. And there is one major returning character who figures prominently in the Marses’ lives.
Also on the character-growth front, Keith buys Veronica a gun, and – while she’s reluctant at first – she begins training with it. If Veronica is going to follow in his footsteps, she has to do so as safely as possible, Keith says. This is the future of “Veronica” yarns, it seems: She’s a private eye in Neptune. She never joined the FBI (although Thomas would’ve gone that route, at least temporarily, had The CW picked up Season 4), and she’s not working as a lawyer. This book tells us, however, that she did briefly intern with the FBI, so she learned some basics of blood spatter analysis, and even though she probably overpaid for her lawyer knowledge, at least it will come in handy as a detective, especially when interacting with public defender Cliff McCormack or corrupt/inept Sheriff Dan Lamb. (We learn in this novel what is implied in the film: Dan Lamb, played by Jerry O’Connell, is the brother of the late Don Lamb, the sheriff on the TV series.) While her start was in TV, Thomas has nicely positioned Veronica for future standalone yarns in movies or novels at Mars Investigations.
“Tan Line’s” mystery plot is very good, and it shows that Thomas’ well of ideas is far from untapped (even though Season 3 challenged that notion, with the repeat of the Hearst College rapes plot from a Season 2 episode). For the first time, we see that Neptune is a spring break mecca, and the wild parties are a perfect backdrop for the kidnappings of two spring-breaking girls. As with the show, the plot twists and turns, yet remains logical.
One complaint: The “Veronica Mars” timeline gets messed up thanks to the film and this first novel (at least one more book is confirmed, and Thomas has talked about future movies, although nothing is official yet). The movie seems to take place in 2016, since it features a 10-year-reunion of Veronica’s Neptune High Class of 2006. And the back cover of the book says “10 years after graduating from high school …” However, the book includes at least one reference that it is 2014: the birthdate and age of one of the kidnapped girls. So the official word on this matter is that Veronica graduated in 2006 and her 10-year reunion is in 2014. I guess we’re not supposed to think about it too hard.
At any rate, I’m happy to put up with that strange flaw in exchange for the new “Veronica Mars” stuff we’re getting. I look forward to the second novel and I hope we’ll get more stories after that. Ideally, they’ll be stories that delve more into Mac and Wallace and Weevil and Logan, but hey, I’ll take whatever I can get.
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