History Literature / VeronicaMars

* AscendedExtra: Norris Clayton, a high school bully whom Veronica (and the FBI) once misidentified as a potential domestic terrorist, appeared in a grand total of ''one episode'' in the original TV run, and wasn't in the movie. However, in the books it's revealed that he cleaned up his act significantly, joined the local PD, and has a significant supporting role in both novels as Veronica's latest FriendOnTheForce.

* MandatoryLine: Nearly every surviving recurring character from the TV show and films shows up for a scene in ''The Thousand Dollar Tan Line''.
** {{Averted}} in ''Mr. Kiss and Tell'' with Dick, who's only mentioned in passing at one point and never actually shows up in person. PlayedStraight with Wallace, who only makes two brief appearances. Everyone else has a major role in the plot this time, though.

** {{Averted}} in ''Mr. Kiss and Tell'' with Dick, who's only mentioned in passing at one point. PlayedStraight with Wallace, who only makes two brief appearances. Everyone else has a major role in the plot this time, though.

** Doubling as a SeriesContinuityError: There's also the fact that the first novel is set during Spring Break, and is explicitly stated to take place about 6-8 weeks after the movie; which would furthermore put Veronica's finishing her law degree and attending her high school reunion at quite an odd time of year (around February - an unusual time for a postgrad to be sitting final exams or for a large group of adults to be available to return home for extended visits).

* ContrivedCoincidence: Some reviewers of ''The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line'' have pointed out that [[spoiler:the second missing girl being revealed as Veronica's step-sister via her MissingMom Lianne]] had no actual impact on the plot, and seemed to just be a way to re-introduce a character from Veronica's past into the books for added drama. However, it's pretty true to form for the franchise, and for ''noir'' mysteries in general come to that, so it's not necessarily out of place.

* XanatosGambit: [[spoiler:Aurora's]] plan in ''The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line'' is to [[spoiler:fake her own abduction ''twice'': first with the aid of her dad, then again with the help of her secret boyfriend. Her reasoning being that no matter what the outcome, she'll get a cut of the ransom money, and quite possibly a higher percentage than her dad originally planned to give her.]] Unfortunately for [[spoiler:her, she]] didn't quite factor in the combined detective skills and general {{Badass}}-ery of Veronica and Keith Mars.

** Doubling as a SeriesContinuityError: There's also the fact that the first novel is set during Spring Break, and is explicitly stated to take place about 6-8 weeks after the movie; which would furthermore put Veronica's finishing her law degree and attending her high school reunion at quite an odd time of year (around February - an unusual time for a postgrad to be sitting final exams or for a large group of adults to be available to return home for extended visits).

** Implied with [[spoiler:Lianne and Tanner. Though it's not explicitly stated whether he married her for this purpose, having a wife and new son in tow surely made it much easier for Tanner and Aurora to pull off a con with a high media profile when the opportunity came their way, since it made them seem like more of a respectable nuclear family, and might have stopped any old creditors who knew them as a father-daughter team from recognising them.]]

** Implied with [[spoiler:Lianne and Tanner. Though it's not explicitly stated whether he married her for this purpose, having a wife and new son in tow surely made it much easier for Tanner and Aurora to pull off a con with a high media profile when the opportunity came their way, since it made them seem like more of a respectable nuclear family.]]

** Implied with [[spoiler:Lianne and Tanner. Though it's not explicitly stated whether he married her for this purpose, having a wife and new son in tow surely made it much easier for Tanner and Aurora to pull of a con with a high media profile when the opportunity comes their way, since it makes them seem like more of a respectable nuclear family.]]

** {{Zigzagged}} with Aurora and her gay male best friend: he's openly gay from the start of their friendship and so she never pretends to be his girlfriend, but [[spoiler:it turns out that ''was'' the Beard: in fact they ''are'' a couple, and used his presumed heterosexuality to con Aurora's parents into sanctioning "sleepovers" and weekends away that they'd never have approved of if they knew they two were sexually involved. Really, it's just a short step from this to faking Aurora's second abduction and screwing over Tanner for his ill-gotten ransom money.]]

** [[spoiler:Though this trope is most certainly {{Exploited}} by Aurora and her father, when they decide to copycat Hayley's abduction for their con.]]

** ReleaseDateChanged: However, the second novel was eventually delayed from October 2014 to January 2015. Whether this was a direct result of the above trope, or whether some other factor came into play, is unknown.

* MissingMom: Veronica's mother was last seen at the end of Season 1 of the TV series, some eleven years prior to the first novel. It's actually a kind of {{Inversion}} of this trope, since Veronica has actually moved on from her mother's absence; it's Leanne [[spoiler:suddenly coming back unannounced]] that causes trouble for Veronica and Keith.

* LittleMissConArtist: [[spoiler:The second missing girl, who's also Veronica's step-sister, turns out to be a ruthless example of one: having been her Dad's accomplice for most of her childhood, she's got no compunctions about faking her own copycat abduction, even though it considerably slows down the search for the first victim, who really ''is'' missing.]]

** Doubling as a SeriesContinuityError: There's also the fact that the first novel is set during Spring Break, and is explicitly stated to take place about 6-8 weeks after the movie; which would furthermore put Veronica's finishing her law degree and attending her high school reunion at quite an odd time of year (around February - an unusual time for a postgrad to be sitting final exams or for an adult to be returning home for an extended visit).

* WritersCannotDoMath: There is some... ambiguity, to say the least, about the timeline of ''Veronica Mars'' post-TV series that really starts to show up in the novels. Most obviously is the question of exactly ''when'' events are taking place: the original show ran from 2004 to 2007, with Veronica graduating from high school in 2006 (with a helpful "Class of '06" banner in the background). Though the film was released in 2014, it takes place at Veronica's ten-year high school reunion, which would seem to imply the film is set in 2016, and there's nothing in the movie that explicitly contradicts that. However, ''The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line'', mentions the year as 2014 several times.
** There's also the fact that the first novel is set during Spring Break, and is explicitly stated to take place about 6-8 weeks after the movie; which would furthermore put Veronica's finishing her law degree and attending her high school reunion at quite an odd time of year (around February - an unusual time for a postgrad to be sitting final exams or for an adult to be returning home for an extended visit).

** Weevil giving up on his hard-won family man persona and rejoining his old gang gets a mention in the first book, and becomes a plot point in the second.