You don't have to be a fan of the TV show or movie to enjoy the Veronica Mars books (although I highly recommend the show to noir mystery-lovers). This book starts ten years after Veronica's high school graduation, a few months after the movie left off. Veronica is called in to investigate when a girl disappears from a Spring Break party, but it soon becomes apparent this is no ordinary missing persons case, and Veronica is quickly pulled back into Neptune's seedy underworld. This wasn't high literature or anything, but it was so much fun (and had such good narrative drive) I didn't want to stop until I knew how it ended.

This is far from great literature, but the first "original Veronica Mars novel" that came out last summer was a great ride and I'm ready to do it again. Coming January 20.