HOPE NEVER DIES
Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama team up in this high-stakes thriller that combines a mystery worthy of Watson and Holmes with the laugh-out-loud bromantic chemistry of Lethal Weapon’s Murtaugh and Riggs.
Vice President Joe Biden is fresh out of the Obama White House and feeling adrift when his favorite railroad conductor dies in a suspicious accident, leaving behind an ailing wife and a trail of clues. To unravel the mystery, “Amtrak Joe” re-teams with the only man he’s ever fully trusted: the 44th president of the United States. Together they’ll plumb the darkest corners of Delaware,
Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama team up in this high-stakes thriller that combines a mystery worthy of Watson and Holmes with the laugh-out-loud bromantic chemistry of Lethal Weapon’s Murtaugh and Riggs.
Vice President Joe Biden is fresh out of the Obama White House and feeling adrift when his favorite railroad conductor dies in a suspicious accident, leaving behind an ailing wife and a trail of clues. To unravel the mystery, “Amtrak Joe” re-teams with the only man he’s ever fully trusted: the 44th president of the United States. Together they’ll plumb the darkest corners of Delaware, traveling from cheap motels to biker bars and beyond, as they uncover the sinister forces advancing America’s opioid epidemic.
Part noir thriller and part bromance, Hope Never Dies is essentially the first published work of Obama/Biden fiction—and a cathartic read for anyone distressed by the current state of affairs.
- Quirk Books
- Paperback
- July 2018
- 304 Pages
- 9781683690399
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About Andrew Shaffer
Andrew Shaffer is the New York Times bestselling author of Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery, the parody Fifty Shames of Earl Grey, and numerous other humorous works of fiction and nonfiction. He has been nominated by readers for a Goodreads Choice Award for Humor.
A television drama based on his novel-in-progress Tapped is currently in development at Freeform, with The Pretty Little Liars’ I. Marlene King and The Vampire Diaries’ Paul Wesley producing. He has also penned several spec film and television screenplays.
He has appeared as a guest on NPR, FOX News, and CBS, and has been published in McSweeney’s, Mental Floss, and The Daily Beast.
He is the owner and creative director of Order of St. Nick, the quirky greeting card company whose cards have been featured on The Colbert Report. He also is the publisher of 8th Circle Press.
Shaffer attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and studied comedy writing at Chicago’s famed The Second City. An Iowa native, Shaffer lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with his wife, novelist Tiffany Reisz. He teaches and mentors writers at Lexington’s Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.
Praise
An Official Summer Read of Publishers Weekly and The Interrobang
“[Hope Never Dies is] a roughly 300-page work of political fanfiction, an escapist fantasy that will likely appeal to liberals pining for the previous administration, longing for the Obama-Biden team to emerge from political retirement as action heroes. But it’s also at times a surprisingly earnest story about estranged friends who are reunited under strange circumstances.”—Alexandra Alter, New York Times
“It’s a giddy premise, a bit of Resistance wish-fulfillment for those who’d like to see Biden and Obama trading one-liners and cracking skulls.”—The New Yorker
“While readers are sure to get a kick out of the codenames and inside jokes used playfully throughout, Hope Never Dies is an intriguing saga that doesn’t sacrifice momentum for winks and nods.”—Entertainment Weekly
Discussion Questions
1. The relationship between Barack Obama and Joe Biden has been the subject of internet memes in the months following the end of their administration. Why do you think that the fondness for Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s “bromance” has persisted after their tenure in office?
2. Do you feel that the voices of the Obama and Biden characters in Shaffer’s novel were authentic and sounded true to life? Why or why not?
3. What moments in Hope Never Dies made you laugh?
4. What tropes does this book borrow from the tradition of hard-boiled detective mysteries?
5. What crime-fighting duos from literature do you think Obama and Biden best emulate?
6. Why do you think the author chose the opioid crisis as the framing for this mystery?
7. The characters of Obama and Biden are portrayed as action-hero versions of themselves, playing up their most admirable qualities. What can candidates for political office learn from this aspirational bromance?
8. Did you feel that reading this book provided an escape from the current political climate in the United States?
9. Do you think that seeing elected officials portrayed as larger-than-life heroes could inspire readers to get involved in politics?
10. What other pairs of either real people or fictional characters would you like to see team up to solve a mystery?