Hope Rides Again

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. [em]Agent: Brandi Bowles, United Talent Agency. (July) [/em]