GoodReads meta-data is 304 pages rated 3.51 by 9272 litizens.
Genre: krimi, pastiche.
Verdict: Bromance.
Confession: I gulped it down a day.
In retirement Joe Biden is restless and bored, and more than a little miffed that his through-thick-and-thin buddy Barry has cut him loose. Then one night out walking with the dog, Joe sees a dark figure in the gloaming. That’s Barry, who is always dark!
Barack has broken his long silence to deliver in person some bad news. Gulp.
Aside, Joe Biden’s only claim to fame is that he rode the Amtrak back and forth to DC from Wilmington Delaware most days for thirty-six years while has was a US Senator. Joe knows Amtrak, and all who work the early and late trains he used to take. Turns out one of those workers is dead, a conductor who always had a good word, and in his pocket was a print from online telephone book of Joe’s home address. Was that the start of a call for help?
The emotional, impulsive Joe is a whirlpool of reactions. He is glad to see his BFF Barry and pissed off he hasn’t seen him a lot sooner and in better circumstances. He is stunned by the death of his nodding acquaintance and perplexed, even more than usual, as he acknowledges, by the address.
A good Irish Catholic Union man is dead in strange circumstances, and Joe does what Joe always does – the instincts of a democratic politician run deep – he dusts off the black suit and goes to the funeral. Brief discussions there with mourners and family compound the mystery.
Joe does what Joe always does and plunges ahead…into trouble and more trouble. However, before it gets too deep that black man in black reappears with his pet Secret Service agent to bail Joe out. By now Joe is in too deep to get out and Barry, well Barry, is curious about what is going on, and Joe always stood by him when the going got tough, so he joins in, albeit on his own inscrutable terms. Yoda is a transparent blabber mouth compared to this guy.
What follows is a rollicking ride involving the DEA, corrupt men in blue (good Italian Catholics though they may be), incorruptible and uncommunicative cops, mad and bad bikers, Little Beast, Navy Seal Team 4 (sorta), Steve the unflappable one-man Secret Service detail grudgingly allowed by the Thief-in-Chief, a largely absent but still influential Jill, Champ the wonder dog, a wily insurance investigator, and assorted First Staters.
The plotting is ingenious and slowly ties everything up. Maybe the tying is more attenuated than some readers might like but it is complete (down to the wig [whew!]) and there is after all no rush to the finish line.
While Joe does what Joe does and rushes about, well, as a senior citizen he hobbles about mostly, without a plan, Barry is the chess player who is seldom seen but always ten moves ahead of the game. The characterisations of these two is nicely done by the author, a journalist, who had the chance to observe them for years and did so, rather than simply react the way most mediaistas do. Biden wears his heart on his sleeve, while Obama is detached and analytic. Biden is obvious and a terrible liar. Obama is aloof and distant.
There is a lot about Wilmington and Amtrak and amid all the hurly-burly a certain amount of unexpected but effective pathos, too.
Needless to say, Pox News has attacked the book with blazing incoherence.
I could not deny myself the pleasure of reading some of troll droppings on GoodReads. My, my how the anger grows out of nothing. Lear had that wrong. Well, I assume it is anger but that is guessing from the incoherent tweeting. Though there were some letters from the alphabet.