Joe Biden is roused by his faithful pooch, Champ, who hears something Nefarious going on outside. Sallying forth to investigate, Scranton Joe finds a lone (well, lone-ish — there are guards) figure standing in the woods waiting for him. It’s Barack Obama, and he has news to deliver. Joe’s favorite Amtrak conductor is dead, and as Obama snuffs out the last of his Marlboro red, they resolve to get to the bottom of the mysterious death. Sure, they’re not cops. They’re not even private investigators. They’re ex-politicians watching world events in impotent frustration, but maybe they can figure out why a good man is dead, and do so without getting themselves in trouble with Jill, Michelle, a biker gang, and — you know, the actual police.

The novel’s cover alone tells the reader that this is a bit of a silly novel, as it has fun with the Biden-Obama dynamic and the inherent absurdity of high-level politicians doing private investigation. The novel opens with Biden brooding over the fact that Obama is off chumming with celebrities and the like, ignoring his former ally and weekly lunch buddy, and while Biden is excited to work with Obama again, he nurses a grudge throughout the story over his belief that neither Obama nor anyone else takes him very seriously. For him, finding out what happened to his friend is personal, so he pushes down his frustration and resentment to sneak through fences and into dodgy motel rooms. The clues keep telling him that his friend was mixed some genuine skulduggery, and Obama is willing to accept that — but Joe knew the man, gosh-darn it, and he’s not prepared to abandon the man to a line in a police blotter.

The book’s main characters are both its primary draw and its main limitation: without Biden and Obama, all of the book’s humor would be gone, and the author would need to work overtime to create the mix of tension and affection that marks much of the book. However, given that they’re political celebrities who most anyone in the United States is familiar with, Schaffer doesn’t have much liberty with their characters, and they overshadow any potential supporting characters – -though there is one who is interesting enough in her own right that a series about her might be worth reading. Despite the book’s main characters being political figures, there’s not that much politics in the novel itself, though when it does pop up it’s either used intentionally for comedic effect (like Obama’s Data-like tendency to lecture people) or can be used unintentionally for comedic effect as readers who have a longer attention span than the news cycle can laugh at Schaffer’s naivete and one-sidedness. It’s purely Biden-Obama fanfiction, though, so that’s to be expected. One non-political example of the authorial Biden protection comes when a secret service agent tells Biden he acted badly toward the service. . Biden’s response is to own up to it and declare that he didn’t want to get too close to anyone lest they actually die for him. It is entirely possible for a guy to be nice Scranton Joe part of the time, and a bit of a jerk part of the time. People are complicated and rarely consistent.

The ideal audience for this book would be people who liked the Obama/Biden memes, because that dynamic is fused here with a basic mystery-thriller. I found it enjoyable light reading, but if it weren’t for the two leads it would need more work to get into. The basic plot is fine — I could see Michael Connolly doing something with it by adding more muscle, better characters, etc — but it’s quick and shallow and largely just follows in the Biden-Obama wake.

Related:
Murder in the Lincoln Bedroom, Elliot Roosevelt. Part of a series of Roosevelt White House mysteries. I read this but didn’t posted a review beyond commenting on the inherent interest of the 1943 D.C. setting. I remember nothing about it except for the mention of temporary housing for all the new office ladies.