Mr. Kiss and Tell, By Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham

Book 5 of 2015

Wit. Street smarts. Mystery. Intensity.

Mr. Kiss and Tell, the second book in the Veronica Mars series, is everything I wanted it to be. Time and time again, Rob Thomas meets the high expectations his fans set before him of the beloved Veronica Mars characters.

Every time I closed my eyes, I could picture each of the characters from the Veronica Mars CW series speaking; Thomas and co-author Jennifer Graham capture each characters idiosyncrasies with such delicate yet deliberate style that you almost forget you’re reading a story based on television characters written ten years ago. Thomas and Graham don’t force-feed their readers little bits of what they think we’ll like about them; the characters tiny actions, sarcastic quips, and familiar gestures do that on their own.

The premise of the second book is this: a familiar face from the show (spoiler alert: it’s Meg Manning’s little sister, all grown up!) has been attacked and left for dead on the outskirts of Neptune. Enter a pending lawsuit, the Neptune Grand, Mars Investigations and a small handful of unviable suspects. It looks like Veronica has landed herself a classic who-done-it case once again.

Overall, I loved it. As mentioned, Thomas and Graham expertly weave us through character interactions that we crave (hooray for more Logan this time around and, of course, Deputy Leo is always welcome), while forcing us to dive deep into the brain-stumping mystery with Veronica. Sub-plots of Weevil’s pending case with Keith Mars and a potential new Sheriff in town (is it finally time for Lamb to say buhhh-bye?) lead us to believe that there are more books/movies/webisodes/episodes in Veronica’s future.

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To read my review of Veronica Mars Book 1, click here.