Hope Rides Again

 Hope Rides Again by Andrew Shaffer (2019) 285 pages

The second in a mystery series whose fictional main characters are Joe Biden and Barack Obama, this book was the perfect antidote to a rainy winter day. The book, written from Biden's point of view, takes a moment at the beginning to give his thoughts about the first book in the series: "What a bunch of malarkey...Some two-bit hack had written a potboiler starring yours truly, Joe Biden." 

This story finds Biden in Chicago to see Obama and to meet Caruso, a former rapper who's now a social justice activist, a man whose endorsement would be useful if Biden decides to go ahead with another bid for president. Along the way, Obama's Blackberry is stolen, leading Biden on a mission to track it down, bringing him to a crime scene at the railyards. Shaun, a teenager in Obama's Rising Stars Program which fosters the next generation of community leaders, has been shot. Over the course of the long day, Biden hops all around Chicago to find out who shot him, sometimes alone and sometimes with Obama (and Obama's long-suffering secret service detail, Steve). 

One never knows which pol's name will be dropped next. Sometimes the former partners keep secrets from the other, and sometimes they think they can read each other's minds, with almost disastrous results. Whatever, this mystery/bromance is a quick, entertaining read.