Hope Rides Again

May 13, 2019
Bestseller Shaffer’s second thriller featuring Joe Biden and Barack Obama as investigators (after 2018’s Hope Never Dies) opens with Biden referring to the events of the previous book as “a bunch of malarkey,” setting the tone for the rest of this humorous page-turner. The former v-p, who hopes to be elected president, is in Chicago to attend a global economic forum Obama is hosting. When Obama’s Blackberry disappears from the green room at the building where the event is being held, Biden is eager to engage in more “Hardy Boys hijinks” to locate it. The device is traced to a railroad yard, but even after Obama remotely deletes its contents, Biden is determined to identify the thief; he suspects it’s Shaun Denton, the likable teenager who was assigned to watch the green room. When Biden arrives at the train yard, however, he finds that Denton has been shot, turning the investigation into something more serious. Once again, Shaffer convincingly portrays his unusual leads as action heroes. Agent: Brandi Bowles, United Talent Agency.

June 1, 2019
Joe Biden's bid for the presidency is put on hold when a St. Patrick's Day stopover to visit his old pal Barack Obama in Chicago turns into a mashup of crime, corruption, free-wheeling adventure, wisecracks, and sententiousness. Some people have no respect, fumes Biden as he tosses aside Murder on the Amtrak Express, the roman à clef starring him, which sounds an awful lot like Shaffer's Hope Never Dies (2018). Who could possibly imagine that the eminent former vice president of the United States could get involved in such shenanigans? But hours later, Biden, who's come to the ex-president's hometown so that Obama can introduce him to Caruso, an activist rapper who could go a long way toward shoring up Biden's electoral appeal to African Americans, is hip-deep in another dose of the same. After Obama's Blackberry goes missing, Biden recalls that Shaun Denton, a teenager who's risen above a tough childhood to become a member of Michelle Obama's Rising Stars program, had the perfect chance to swipe it. Not wanting to alarm his old running mate, Biden follows Shaun by himself until the trail ends on the city's South Side, where someone's shot Shaun twice. The kid isn't dead, but he's comatose, at high risk of infection, and unlikely to offer any useful information about who shot him even if he survives. So Biden and Obama join forces once more to track down the shooter, recover that errant Blackberry, and figure out just how far they can trust Mayor Rahm Emanuel and whether Red Door, the charity run by Obama's friend pastor Jenkins Brown, is really on the level, all the while avoiding kidnappers (not entirely successfully) and locals quaffing green beer. This time around, Biden is less humorous than before, moralizing and generalizing as if he were honing lines for his stump speech at the end of every chapter. Just as silly as it sounds.

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June 1, 2019
Mystery fans love a series with identifiable heroes whose character builds from book to book. So Shaffer, who took the best-seller lists by storm with Hope Never Dies (2018), featuring Joe Biden and Barack Obama as amateur detectives, is back with a second adventure. Of course, a suspension of disbelief is required, but it's worth it. Joe and Barack are a variation on Robert B. Parker's Spenser and Hawk, minus the gunplay and fisticuffs. Joe is the wise-guy narrator, and "Barry" is the ever-cool partner. (One beleaguered Secret Service agent wanders about with a bad case of nerves as his charges constantly place themselves in danger.) Barry is in Chicago to attend an economic summit. Joe is crisscrossing the country to sell a book. While waiting to meet with Barry, Joe befriends a young intern at the event. Later, while Joe tracks down Barry's lost Blackberry, there's word of a shooting on the South Side. It's the young intern. The game is afoot for Joe and Barry. This is fun, escapist fiction with enough details, like the Blackberry, to stay grounded in a kind of reality. Sorta. Just enjoy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)