Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer

The 2016 Presidential Election has ended.  Former Vice President Joe Biden doesn’t quite know what to do with himself.  As he watches his former boss Barack Obama vacationing with the likes of Richard Branson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Hollywood superstar Bradley Cooper, he feels discarded and hopeless.  All this changes when Obama arrives on Joe’s doorstep one evening with the news of the death of a dear friend of Joe’s..

Hope Never Dies is a fun read with an interesting premise – “Hey, I got an idea!  How about Biden and Obama team up to solve a murder?”  When the story begins, it doesn’t appear to be anything deeper than a total bromance between the internet’s two favorite political pals, however, there is actually a pretty solid mystery at the novel’s core.  Shaffer kept me guessing right up until the end due to several sly red herrings thrown in to misdirect this reader.

I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I can’t say I know much about Joe Biden, so I’m not sure if this characterization comes anywhere close to that of the former Vice President.  I’m not sure if that even matters, to be honest.  Biden is described as a broken-down man struggling to come to grips with a directionless life.  Some of the similes and descriptions that Biden explores are surface-level deep and downright groan-worthy, although, I believe that’s the point.  Above all else, it’s his incorruptible character that makes him the perfect fit for an amateur sleuth.

On the other hand, Obama is played like the ultimate bad-ass dripping with swagger, which is a far cry from the casual, Dad-jeans wearing forty-fourth president we all remember.  That said, he ends up being the perfect Yin to Biden’s Yang.  To put it another way, if Biden is Carlton, than Obama is Will Smith.  Shaffer succeeds in writing some entertaining back-and-forth dialogue between the two, even if I could never imagine them saying some of the things that come out of their mouths.

I have to admit I really only asked for a copy of this book because the cover made me laugh.  When I finished it, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it.  While I generally like my mystery novels dark and bleak, it’s nice to try something lighter once in a while.  Hope Never Dies is the literary equivalent to a fun buddy-cop movie; an ideal summer read.

Hope Never Dies is on sale July 10, 2018