Bill Clinton and James Patterson on their new thriller, "The First Gentleman"

Seems that there is always a lot going on behind the walls of the White House where truth can often be stranger than fiction.But fiction can be pretty compelling, too.

In the new novel "The First Gentleman" (to be published June 2 by Little, Brown & Co.), the commander in chief is a woman, and her husband is accused of murder.It's the third collaboration from best-selling author James Patterson and his co-writer, President Bill Clinton.Was there a scenario in the book that Patterson couldn't have written without Clinton's help? "Oh, I couldn't have done any of it without him," Patterson said.

"I would have been lost.But the other thing, you know, look, I mean, he's the expert on the first gentleman.

You know, he was almost a first gentleman!""Yeah, I thought about it for years.And it's the only political job I ever wanted and I didn't get!" Clinton smiled.

"'Cause I really thought Hillary should be president." Clinton would have been the very first first gentleman had his wife, Hillary, won the 2016 election.And he says back then he did a lot of thinking about what his role would be as a presidential spouse: "How could I do this job in a way that I would be on-call to help if she needed me, but I wouldn't get in the way?""That's the way I feel about this relationship: How can I help without getting in the way?" Patterson said.

"I'm kind of the first gentleman of our [relationship]!" "If you believe that, I got some land in Arizona I want to show you!" Clinton laughed.And sometimes, their made-up White House looks almost like real life.

In the book, the president keeps working through an agonizing personal crisis.During his 1999 impeachment proceedings, President Clinton kept working, too, with some of the very people who were trying to kick him out of the White House.

"And they were amazed by it," he said."They'd come and do business with me, [and] as far as they knew, I couldn't remember what was going on.

And we would try to hammer out deal...