Mr. Kiss and Tell (Veronica Mars #2) by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham

Veronica Mars, now firmly established as a partner at Mars Investigations with her father, is hired by the insurance company that insures the very fancy Neptune Grand hotel. Months earlier a young woman had a drink at the hotel's bar. The next morning she was was found beaten, raped, and left for dead in an abandoned field. One of the hotel's former employees was suspected of the crime but was deported before the case was officially solved. The insurance company hires Veronica to help them determine if the hotel was negligent in some way. Veronica accepts the job but has much much bigger plans. She isn't just interested in the hotel's legal problems; she is determined to bring a rapist to justice.

Mr. Kiss and Tell is a mystery, although the mystery isn't so much about who did it as it is how Veronica is going to catch him. She figures out fairly early on who the culprit is but a less than honest victim, a less than sympathetic police force, and a lack of physical evidence make it difficult to put the man behind bars. But Veronica always finds a way.

One of the things I always liked about the Veronica Mars series is that it never shied away from showing that life could be unfair and unjust; that the good guys don't always win, the bad guys don't always pay for their crimes, and the innocent sometimes suffer for it. Neptune, the beautiful seaside town somewhere north of San Diego is divided between the rich and the not rich more than ever. In this installment, there is a girl who resorts to desperate measures to cover tuition and cops suspected of planting evidence on innocents. Veronica and Keith are fighting the good fight, sometimes winning and sometimes not.

Of course there is more going on in Neptune than Veronica solving mysteries. Logan and Veronica are still together. Mac and Wallace make appearances (need more of them in future stories). The inept Sheriff Lamb is up for reelection and this time he may face a genuine challenge. For the first time in a long time there is the possibility of a real change in Neptune's power structure.

I love Veronica Mars so much! After the TV series ended, there was a movie, and now there is a book series. This is the second book in the series, and goodness I hope there are more.