We live in an age when, it seems, little controversy can happen without demands for an inquiry into it. You name it, and the chances are that, if it’s the slightest bit contentious, an official probe will be launched.

So, why not the same for the allegedly questionable business affairs of Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son? And how might this reflect on the current occupant of the White House?

That, essentially, is one of the key questions posed by a new book, Laptop from Hell: Hunter Biden, Big Tech, and the Dirty Secrets the President Tried to Hide. Authored by a New York Post journalist, Miranda Devine, the book tries to get to the bottom of the now-infamous laptop that Hunter Biden is said to have owned.

It reportedly contained all manner of evidence about alleged crimes and misdemeanors – all robustly denied – involving Joe Biden’s son.

But Devine asks why there has been, thus far, no official investigation into all of this.

One possible answer, she argues, is what amounts to a “cover-up” by the mainstream media to try to keep the lid on the whole business, essentially so that the then-presidential candidate could avoid some potentially highly embarrassing questions about his son.

Hunter Biden repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and Joe Biden won the election.

But this has not stopped repeated calls by Devine and many others for a transparent and unbiased investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings, not least to establish whether the image of the country has been compromised.

Arguably the most serious accusation is that Joe Biden, while serving as vice president, had shaped American foreign policy in Ukraine to benefit his son’s business activities in that country.

President Biden has always strongly denied he knew anything about his son’s business activities in Ukraine but, it is claimed, that as former vice president he met with Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company, whose board Hunter Biden sat on.

Pozharskyi is alleged to have subsequently sent an email to Hunter Biden thanking him for “giving [me] an opportunity to meet your father” and to spend “some time together.” The Bidens insist the meeting never took place.

The email is said to be among a huge quantity of information recovered from a laptop which Hunter is said to have left at a repair shop in Delaware in April 2019.

The owner of the computer repair shop owner in Wilmington said Hunter Biden left a damaged Apple computer at his shop and asked to recover any data. He said the man never returned to retrieve the computer or an external hard drive on which its contents had been stored.

After the shop owner reported the matter to the FBI, its agents, brandishing a grand jury subpoena, seized the laptop and the external hard drive.

Officials separately confirmed that the FBI had seized the laptop and an external hard drive as part of an investigation, though they did not detail the inquiry or whether it involved money laundering or Hunter Biden.

Fast forward to Donald Trump’s impeachment which focused on his alleged attempts to press Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, to announce investigations that could benefit Trump politically, including one into Burisma and the Bidens. To counter the accusations that Donald Trump abused his power, some of his supporters raised allegations of corruption about Hunter Biden’s work in the country while his father was vice president.

The contents of the laptop were subsequently leaked to the New York Post which has run several articles about it.

In the book, Devine claims the laptop uncovered a “treasure trove of corporate documents, emails, text messages, photographs, and voice recordings” spanning a decade, that “provide evidence” that President Biden was involved in his son’s ventures not only in Ukraine but also China and beyond, despite his repeated denials.

The laptop also prompted concerns about Russian disinformation. Some had cautioned about Russian attempts to influence the election, including by spreading disinformation about the Bidens.

What is certain is that there has been extensive media coverage of the alleged scandals surrounding Hunter and his personal transgressions revealed by his abandoned computer.

The problem for this author – and some others – is that while some parts of the media have had a field day with Biden’s laptop, much of the mainstream press in the U.S. – along with tech giants like Google and Facebook – have steered clear of the story.

Why, Devine asks? Is it merely to prevent Joe Biden from being put on the spot about his son and, in doing so, possibly implicate himself?

During the presidential campaign, Trump and Republicans questioned potential conflicts of interest from Hunter Biden’s position on the board of the Ukrainian energy company at the time when his father was Barack Obama’s vice president.

The Bidens have rejected all such assertions as an attempt by Republicans to undermine both the president and his son.

Devine suggests, though, that there are many questions still to be addressed that can only adequately be dealt with by an official investigation into the whole affair.

President Biden, for his part, says he “is deeply proud of his son, who has fought through difficult challenges, including the vicious personal attacks, only to emerge stronger.”

That may be so, but the calls for an inquiry, again re-ignited by Miranda Devine’s book, simply refuse to go away.