Lucas Blogs About Books

Depicted: a scene which does not appear in the book. So, what's this book's deal? Well, Hope Never Dies  by Andrew Shaffer is a detective novel pastiche in which former Vice President Joe Biden investigates the death of his friend, an Amtrak conductor on the Acela Express, with a little help from another old friend, that's right, former President Barack Obama. We begin with ol' Uncle Joe in what he calls "a black Irish mood," stewing over a video of Obama parasailing in South Africa, believing that the 44th president would rather hobnob with celebs than play a round of golf with his dorky former VP. Who should turn up in his backyard but Barack himself, and he's got some bad news: Amtrak conductor Finn Donnelly was hit by a train with a baggie of heroin in his pocket and a map to Joe Biden's house at his desk. From there Biden and Obama undertake an ill-advised investigation into Donnelly's death,  while rekindling the bromance which has bee...

Book (mostly) delivers exactly what this cover promises! (see review) So, what's this book's deal? Like, zoinks, Hypothetical Reader! This is a pulpy, post-modern, Scooby-Doo-meets-H.P. Lovecraft pastiche! Back in 1977, a quartet of preteens and their Weimaraner found out that a squatter was using legends of a lake creature to get control of an abandoned gold mine. Or so they thought. Anyway by 1990, jock Peter's committed suicide after a brief career in Hollywood, tomboy Andy's been kicked out of the Air Force and has an unrequited crush on science nerd Kerri, who's tending bar instead of going to grad school, and fantasy nerd Nate's been in and out of mental institutions because of his hallucinations(?) of Peter's g-g-g-ghost (Sean the Weimaraner is dead, don't worry, he's got a great-grandson, Tim). As for the squatter, well, Wickley's finally out of prison, but tracking him down only confirms Andy's suspicions that there's more...