Hope Never Dies

This book was a perfect pastiche of Raymond Chandler and the actual Joe Biden. Unlike, for example, The Onion's imagined "Diamond Joe", the Joe Biden narrating this book is based in reality—honestly, way more reality than was necessary for this humorous Obama/Biden team-up murder-mystery. The book is peppered with real Joe Biden anecdotes and references to facts that the Biden-knowledgeable will instantly recognize. Since the author did not, like me, live in Delaware and work at the University of Delaware Library, including with archivists working on the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Senatorial Papers collection, I'm a little worried about him and the amount of time he must have spent researching all things Biden—not for a thesis or a show more Chernow-style biographical tome, but for what is, ultimately, an excellent work of ex-Presidential and ex-Vice-Presidential fan fiction. show less

I impulse bought this book based on the cover. And then I read this in under a day. It is a really fast read, and a surprisingly good one. It's presidential fanfiction and I loved it. It made me super nostalgic for the Obama/Biden bromance (their bromance name is Obiden, pass it on!) and I loved the idea of them teaming up to solve a murder. Because of course they would.

I laughed so much during this book. And I really hope this is book one in a long, long series.

Crazy-fun diversion for those tearing themselves bald over the so-called Trump presidency. It's well after the 2016 election and Joe Biden finds himself puttering around at home in Delaware and resenting Barack's exotic vacations with celebrities. He hasn't even texted or called! Then Barack shows up unexpectedly with the news that one of Joe's favorite Amtrak conductors is dead. Before you know it, our favorite bromantic pair are sleuthing to solve a murder. I laughed to see the book cover at the library but the story actually works. As improbable as it is to imagine the two tooling around the dark side of Wilmington, the way Shaffer portrays them is believable given what we already know about them. The story is told from Biden's show more first-person narrative which is perfect as he is the more outwardly emotive compared to "no drama Obama." Their prickly bromantic banter provides plenty of laughs as do images such as "Barack had a sawed-off shotgun balanced casually on his shoulder." What can I say, it's a brisk and hilarious read! show less

Andrew Shaffer’s Hope Never Dies: An Obama-Biden Mystery follows retired Vice President Joe Biden as he begins looking into the circumstances of Amtrak conductor, and personal friend, Finn Donnelly’s death. Shaffer could easily have written a one-note story that was more meme than plot, but he uses the unique tax structure of Wilmington, Delaware to examine the growing wealth divide in the United States in a manner that evokes the social divisions of the great hard-boiled detective novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. While early twentieth-century fiction focused on bootlegging amid the backdrop of Prohibition, Shaffer uses the modern opioid epidemic to much the same effect.

The title evokes then-candidate Barack show more Obama’s answer to a field organizer’s question about losing hope during the 2008 election, which is particularly fitting as Shaffer’s Biden wonders at his legacy and his ability to make a difference amid the chaos of the current administration and its seeming quest to undo all the progress of the previous eight years. While no work focusing on Obama and Biden after 2016 could avoid this topic, Shaffer uses it to further establish the noir mood of his story, painting the country in the same ambivalent light that crime novelists of the 1930s used in their stories. Hope Never Dies is the gripping mystery that our country needs as we find ourselves facing greater struggles and uncertainty from day-to-day. show less

Opening with Biden catching an internet video of Obama parasailing in Cape Town’s harbor, and being upset at their lack of communication over the years since their bromance was YouTube viral. A nighttime glow outside his home beckons his investigation. Out in his backyard woods, secret service standing by, Barack bears news of an Amtrak conductor’s death. A man Joe knew well. In his work office was a map with Joe’s home location marked out. No longer a VIP to the government, Joe is left with a burned out motion detector bulb and no other security than his dog and cache of firearms.

Barack’s concern for his old buddy sets them off to solve the how & why of the conductor’s death. Secret Service Steve along for the begrudged ride. show more Insurance PI’s, DEA, biker gangs, and disgruntled cops add to the cast as masks fall to reveal who’s what and why.

As Norman Lock writes Emily Dickinson saying in “The Wreckage of Eden” “It is one of those books you cannot put down for fear the story will go on without you.” So, on a hot, muggy & eventually rainy day, I did not put it down (except to eat, of course) and winced, LOL’d, and cheered on this team of justice seekers as they solve one mystery after another, dents, concussions, cigarettes and all.

With snarky barbs at the current occupancy of the White House and related affairs, it made it even more hilarious. (The bike chase Bernie line still has me chuckling.)

I sure hope there is more to come.

*Note to Jeremy Enecio, who designed that awesome cover.. they were driving a Dodge Challenger, not a Pontiac Trans Am. Just saying. show less

This surprised me. I thought, by the setup (a mystery novel featuring Barack Obama and Joe Biden as amateur detectives), it was likely a kind of novelty book — a tongue in cheek play at a detective story. And it’s definitely tongue in cheek, but it’s actually a very good, very engaging story.

The story is told by Biden. The plot centers on the suspicious death of an Amtrak conductor and longtime friend of Biden’s,, Finn Donnelly. Donnelly just seems to have been a nice guy, struggling financially due to his wife’s illness. He turns up dead along the railroad tracks, apparently run over by the very train he worked on.

Biden takes Donnelly’s death hard, and he doesn’t think things add up right, partly because Donnelly had a show more printed map showing Biden’s house with him when he died. And even more strangely, Donnelly had what appears to have been a bag of heroin on him as well.

The story takes off from there, with lots of twists and turns, false leads, and all the traditional resources of noir suspense. Even setting aside the Biden/Obama thing, it’s a good plot for a mystery.

But what makes it different, of course, is the the Biden/Obama thing, their personalities and their relationship Biden is feeling like Obama has dropped him as a friend after they left office. They were best buddies in the White House, and now they don’t even talk. No weekly lunches, no texts, no nothing. Biden says he feels like he’d “been dumped the day after graduation.”

But now Obama suddenly shows up In the wake of Donnelly’s death, in a big black, armored limo, with Secret Service support. And they are a team again, although the tension remains in the background.

I won’t give away the ending, but of course, there are two stories to resolve — the truth about Donnelly’s death and the relationship between Biden and Obama. You’ll just have to read the book to see how they come out.

There’s nothing really deep here, unless you want to dig hard into the relationship aspect and make something of it. Shaffer’s depictions of Biden and Obama are great. Biden is straightforward and earnest to a fault — an emotionally sympathetic character. And Obama is cool and wise, with the reserve he was famous for as President.

But mostly it’s just fun, entertaining, and for anyone who yearns for the days when these guys were in office, it’s a way to get a taste of the feeling we all had back then. If you’re not an Obama/Biden fan, it’s probably not going to be your thing. show less

It’s 2017 and former Vice President Joe Biden is at loose ends; politics has been his life for decades, and now he feels unsure of his future. So when a railroad conductor whom he had befriended many years ago is found dead on the railroad tracks, with heroin on his body and in his system, Joe’s quite ready to step into the role of amateur sleuth, if only to help the man’s daughter cope with a recalcitrant insurance company that doesn’t want to pay out. Now, if only he can get some help from his former boss, Barack Obama, maybe they can rekindle their moribund friendship *and* solve the mystery…. I wouldn’t say this is a light read, dealing as it does with very serious issues such as the opioid epidemic and the many show more varieties of grief, but author Andrew Shaffer chooses to tell the story in the first person in Biden’s voice, which captures some of his famed sense of humour and wry hominess and which serves to lighten the mood quite nicely. The book is subtitled “An Obama Biden Mystery,” which suggests that there may be more coming; I don’t know that I’d necessarily buy into a whole series, but this particular book was quite enjoyable; recommended. show less