Book Review: Hope Never Dies | Andrew Shaffer (Obama Biden Mysteries #1)

Hope Never Dies, written by Andrew Shaffer who previously has written other comedy books such as Fifty Shames of Earl Grey, The Day of the Donald, and Catsby, published by Quirk Books earlier this year, it is the first book of the Obama Biden mysteries. The second, Hope Rides Again, is being written, set to come next year.

Hope Never Dies, interestingly, was not the only notable book with a foot in the stand of presidential politics to release this year. There is also the James Patterson/Bill Clinton The President is Missing which gives every impression of excessive length and taking itself far too seriously. Amazon reviewers seem to like it. Actual reviewers, that is to say, critics, seem rather more divided on it, but everyone seems to agree that it's readable.

In the arena of non-fiction we have Bob Woodward's Fear and Omarosa's Unhinged, neither of which I have read and only the former of which I want to read (and only after I've read Woodward's famous collaboration with Carl Bernstein, All the President's Men, on the subject of Watergate).

While Hope Never Dies may lack for the historical impact of the other three books (yes, even The President is Missing, which practically invites the readers to see the echoes between Clinton and its fictional President, and to try and read what you can about Clinton's thoughts on the current administration into it. and of course, the book is co-written by an actual former President!), it - with a second book coming out next year - probably will provide more enjoyment, for more years, than the others will. Hope Never Dies invites a smile, even a laugh, some melancholy yes, whereas The President is Missing seems to me a conjuration of bewilderment and a certain guilty pleasure, and the two non-fiction books only invite a sort of sinking feeling.

---

This is a marvelously fun book, and in that respect the book succeeds right out of the gate, because with a premise as ludicrous as it has, it has to be fun to make it work. Even leaving aside its protagonist, and the politics that lead to this book being written, it's an interesting mystery regardless.

But it's that political content that really elevates it. The asides, regarding Obama and Biden's time in office, with their melancholic nature, add color to the book. The real fun, though, is the way Shaffer uses politics to elevate the humor of the book: from a game of POTUS, FLOTUS, or SCOTUS (apparently played in the Senate back in the day) to Obama talking to a waitress about climate change (and global warming), it creates a very unique color to the book.

The two things at the book's centre hold up reasonably well, you'll be pleased to know. The mystery, about the death of an Amtrak conductor, is a little thin, but solid, and has a couple twists and turns and even some action, though not too much - Joe Biden is in his seventies, after all. True tension is occasionally hampered the presence of Obama's Secret Service agent, but even he manages to get taken out of action at least once.

The "bromance," - the logical endpoint of the evolution of Obama/Biden memes - is solid, too, and in the end, naturally, Joe must share a little bit of the blame, too.

Interesting to me is that the author managed to keep the behavior of his characters within the bounds of plausibility, which is to say, the reader can have a reasonable expectation that the behavior of the characters matches how the real people might themselves behave in such a situation.

Of course, whether they would indeed behave that way in that situation, I do not know. No one can, probably not even Obama or Biden themselves. But it is plausible.

Our copy, that is, my family's copy, came with some goodies for reasons I can't quite remember. The book itself is my mom's. I'll ask her later today and update the post with the reason, but I can't remember right now - it came with goodies, anyway, and I took a photo:

A sticker (I think two, actually) and a signed bookmark. The book itself is also signed on one of the inside pages.

Shaffer wisely doesn't stray too close to 2016 and its consequences: Trump himself is never named in the book. The results of the election are rued by Obama and Biden, of course, and both of them question whether or not they did any good. (Fear not, Barry and Joe, you've secured yourself your places as the best P/VP of the 21st century, at least until 2021 at the earliest and 2025 at the ugly latest.) Many of the issues that face us are touched upon, if only briefly - for example, the opioid crisis.

Politics, than, colors the book - providing humor and melancholy alike. It's never present in such dose that a supporter of our current President would find themselves unable to read it, though I expect that such mentions would bring on a frown.

What to make of it, in the end? I've deliberately avoided considered the book within the wider world at large - but what's the point of it? Nostalgia, catharsis, coda, satire? Whatever. Either/and/or, really.

Mainly, it's a fun book to read. Obama and Biden make for entertaining detectives. It's hardly Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle, but it's an entertaining mystery, rooted in the first-person perspective of Biden and carried by the banter and the bromance between both of them.

If the sequel, Hope Rides Again, maintains this level of quality - or can get even better - than I, for one, will be happy to read some more Obama Biden Mysteries.