美国国家公共电台 NPR Barack And Joe Solve A Murder Mystery

 

DON GONYEA, HOST:

If you missed the news on Monday, President Barack Obama and his former vice¹ president, Joe Biden, were spotted² out at a Washington, D.C., cafe rekindling³ their Oval Office quote-unquote "bromance," catching⁴ up over sandwiches and fennel salad - for real. But there's also word of another meeting between the two former running mates in which they team up to solve a murder. OK, maybe that part didn't happen, but it is the plot of a fun new book, "Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery." Andrew Shaffer is the author, and he joins me now from Lexington, Ky., to tell us more - but not too much, of course. Spoilers, you know.

Andrew Shaffer, welcome to the program.

ANDREW SHAFFER: Thanks for having me, Don.

GONYEA: Let's start with a little reading because I think it'll really give the audience a sense of the noir, gumshoe flavor of this book. You open with Joe Biden, former vice president of the United States, sitting at home in Delaware with nothing to do basically and seething⁵ with envy over Obama's awesome⁶, post-presidency⁷ vacation pics with the likes of Richard Branson and Bradley Cooper. I'll have you pick it up from there.

SHAFFER: I called to my wife, I'm letting Champ out. She didn't answer back. I could hear the TV playing in our bedroom - Law & Order. I should've been watching with her. Instead, I opened the back door. As soon as I did, Champ raced across the lawn and tore off into the woods. The motion light over the back porch should've kicked on, but the bulb was burnt out. It was an old one, I guess. Old bulbs were meant to burn out. The moon was full enough to light up the backyard. Our 7,000-square-foot lake house sat on four acres of property. Late at night, it was possible to imagine you were all alone in the world. Tonight, however, I wasn't alone. A head in the woods was the pinprick of light. And now I smelled tobacco, a familiar brand, Marlboro Reds. Don't get your hopes up, I told myself. Hope is just a four letter word.

GONYEA: (Laughter) OK. That is the arrival, of course, of Barack Obama into the pages of your book.

SHAFFER: Of course. That's - it's a dark, mysterious arrival of the former best friend. And the book is really about two people sort of reconnecting after they've had a little bit of time apart.

GONYEA: The entire book is first person, told by Biden himself. Why Biden, not Obama?

SHAFFER: I tried to get into Obama's head, but you just can't do it. You think there's so much going on in there. And as soon as you start poking⁸ around, it just sort of demystifies that, and he becomes, you know, just a regular guy. And we spent eight years watching him in the White House not as a regular guy. But to me, Joe Biden has always been a regular guy. That's part of his own mystique - is that, hey, I'm just Uncle Joe. I'm Amtrak Joe.

GONYEA: The Biden-Obama relationship has been described as a bromance. When did it occur to you that it would make a good foundation for a full-length whodunit⁹ like this?

SHAFFER: You know, I thought about it for years - doing just a book about Joe Biden nor a narrator. You could imagine him in the vice presidency with nothing to do, sort of daydreaming¹⁰ a Walter Mitty-like existence through his aviator¹¹ shades. But that really never got off the ground. And it wasn't until they were out of office for a week that I was like, oh, well, I need to have them together because those bromance memes had been going around the Internet where it was Joe Biden, like, pulling pranks¹² on the incoming president in the White House and Obama going Joe, stop it. Joe. And so you really had to have them together, I realized, to have a compelling story.

GONYEA: And the basic premise¹³ of this plot is that an Amtrak conductor from the Wilmington Station - Delaware, Biden's home state - is mysteriously murdered or found dead.

SHAFFER: Right. So you have someone who's close to Joe in the story is found dead, and then Obama shows up mysteriously one night and says, oh, I have some information here that you may want to hear about.

GONYEA: And even though we're talking Amtrak here and the mystery that surrounds this death, you keep the book away from political third rails. You're not touching¹⁴ anything too controversial.

SHAFFER: Yeah. Yeah, I think, you know, some of the most controversial stuff in the book might be the defense¹⁵ of Amtrak that Joe Biden gives in it because he's very passionate¹⁶ about that. But yeah, like I said, it's really down-to-earth. And it doesn't go over the top. I mean, although, there are parts where, you know, Joe Biden might be hanging off of a speeding train by three fingers. You know, it does go to some sort of wild places like that.

GONYEA: Surely that's happened (laughter).

SHAFFER: Surely, at some point. They don't call him Amtrak Joe for nothing.

GONYEA: All right. Andrew Shaffer. His latest book is "Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery."

Thanks so much for joining us.

SHAFFER: Thank you, Don.

1 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

2 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

3 rekindling   

v.使再燃( rekindle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• There might be a rekindling of the kind of nationalistic fervour of yesteryear. 过去的国家主义狂热可能再次被点燃。 来自互联网
• Bryant and O'Neal on the floor at the same time, rekindling memories both good and bad. 科比和奥尼尔在地板上在同一时间，死灰复燃的回忆有好有坏。 来自互联网

4 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

5 seething   

沸腾的，火热的

参考例句：

• The stadium was a seething cauldron of emotion. 体育场内群情沸腾。
• The meeting hall was seething at once. 会场上顿时沸腾起来了。

6 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

7 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

8 poking   

n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• He was poking at the rubbish with his stick. 他正用手杖拨动垃圾。
• He spent his weekends poking around dusty old bookshops. 他周末都泡在布满尘埃的旧书店里。

9 whodunit   

n.侦探小说（或剧本、影片等）

参考例句：

• It is not the most promising script for a whodunit.这并不是最有市场前景的侦探小说剧本。
• I always like the series "Whodunit" by Wei Sili.我一直很喜欢卫斯理系列的推理小说。

10 daydreaming   

v.想入非非，空想( daydream的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Stop daydreaming and be realistic. 别空想了，还是从实际出发吧。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Bill was sitting and daydreaming so his mother told him to come down to earth and to do his homework. 比尔坐着空想， 他母亲要他面对现实，去做课外作业。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 aviator   

n.飞行家，飞行员

参考例句：

• The young aviator bragged of his exploits in the sky.那名年轻的飞行员吹嘘他在空中飞行的英勇事迹。
• Hundreds of admirers besieged the famous aviator.数百名爱慕者围困那个著名飞行员。

12 pranks   

n.玩笑，恶作剧( prank的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Frank's errancy consisted mostly of pranks. 法兰克错在老喜欢恶作剧。 来自辞典例句
• He always leads in pranks and capers. 他老是带头胡闹和开玩笑。 来自辞典例句

13 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

14 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

15 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

16 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。