Book Review: Hope Rides Again: An Obama Biden Mystery, by Andrew Shaffer (2019)

The cover of Hope Rides Again, by Andrew Shaffer, 2019.

Author Andrew Shaffer

Andrew Shaffer’s 2018 novel Hope Never Dies imagined Barack Obama and Joe Biden teaming up to a solve a murder. In the 2019 sequel, Hope Rides Again, Obama and Biden once again combine forces to solve a crime. While the first book took place in Biden’s home state of Delaware, Hope Rides Again is set on Obama’s turf—Chicago. 

Hope Rides Again simply isn’t as funny as its predecessor. All the jokes about Biden being old, clueless and out of touch just aren’t as funny now that he’s on the campaign trail and has seemed, well, old, clueless and out of touch. 

While I was happy that Hope Never Dies took a (relatively) realistic view of the plot, as opposed to just being completely over the top, I found myself wanting Hope Rides Again to be more over the top. The idea is a ridiculous one to begin with, so why not just make it completely bonkers? Although Hope Rides Again does get points by allowing Biden to get behind the wheel of a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. (Minus points for making Obama ride in the back seat, because too many people would recognize him.) 

There’s a lot of earnest speechifying in Hope Rides Again. Take this example by Obama:

“It’s time to go. It’s been a long day for all of us. And to be fair to Pastor Brown, you and I don’t know Chicago like he does. I’ve been gone a long time. Neighborhoods change; people change. Some things, however, remain the same. This is a dangerous town. It’s gotten better, but it’s no Mayberry. Even if we solve this case, it won’t stem the flow of guns into the city. It’ll ease our minds, but not a damn thing more.” (p.184) 

Sure, that sounds reasonably like something Barack Obama would say, but there are just too many times in the novel when characters enter that kind of didactic mode. The plot, centering as it does around a young African American male getting shot in Chicago, is pretty depressing. 

There are still some laughs to be found in Hope Rides Again, but I just didn’t enjoy it as much as Hope Never Dies.

Book Review: Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery, by Andrew Shaffer (2018)

The awesome cover of Hope Never Dies, by  Andrew Shaffer, 2018. Sadly, Joe Biden doesn't drive a t-top 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am in the novel.

Author Andrew Shaffer.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden, best buddies.

Are you sick and tired of the current political situation in the United States? Are you nostalgic for the time when Barack Obama was President, Joe Biden was Vice President, and they would go out for ice cream together? If you answered yes to both those questions, I have the perfect book for you: Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery, by Andrew Shaffer. 

In Hope Never Dies, Joe Biden is adjusting to life as a former Vice President when suddenly a longtime Amtrak conductor turns up dead on the railroad tracks. Uncle Joe starts poking around, and eventually gets his friend, former President Barack Obama, involved as well. 

As they did in real life, the fictional Biden and Obama make a good team—Barack is cool and cerebral, Joe is relaxed and shoots from the hip, following his gut. Shaffer writes the book in first person, from Biden’s point of view, and he does a good job at capturing Biden’s stream of consciousness thoughts. As Biden confides to us: “I had something of a reputation for being loose-lipped.” (p.74) 

The plot doesn’t really matter, as it’s all an excuse for us to enjoy seeing Obama and Biden together again, even if it’s only in fictional form. One highlight is Biden waxing poetic about getting to fire up his 2017 Dodge Challenger, with Obama in the passenger’s seat. 

Shaffer has a difficult needle to thread in Hope Never Dies. Should the book feel real, or should it be insanely over the top? Shaffer largely goes for realism, which I think is the better choice. (Although the novel does feature a dream sequence in which Obama is riding a unicorn.) 

Two critiques I have about the book: there are way too many “Joe is a really old guy!” jokes. We know, the guy turned 76 the year Hope Never Dies was released. But he didn’t step in from 1973 on a time-traveling Amtrak train, for crying out loud. (Okay, that sounds like a great idea for a novel: time-traveling Joe Biden! Hoping that the next leap will be the leap home.) He knows that people take selfies! He knows people other than sailors have tattoos! 

My second critique is that there’s just too much material about Biden feeling mopey that Obama hasn’t been hanging out with him enough. It’s just a standard buddy-film trope that gets too much ink here. Hopefully the second Obama Biden Mystery, 2019’s Hope Rides Again, remedies this and just has Barack and Joe being best buds from page one. Because honestly, that’s what we all want. We don’t want Joe moping around about his feelings; we want happy Joe and Barack going out for ice cream.