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 deals." In the midst of impeachment? "Because that's what I got hired to do," Clinton said. "The American people don't pay you to have personal feelings. They pay you to deliver for them."

Clinton and Patterson have been delivering since 2018, with their first book about a president gone missing, and in 2021 their second about the president's daughter getting kidnapped. Both were bestsellers. But for them, it's really not all about work.

Asked how their relationship has evolved over their three books together, Clinton replied, "We've played a lot more golf."

Patterson said, "He's been president more times, but I have more holes-in-one."

"Oh God. Well, I have one; he has nine," said Clinton. "How many Americans have nine holes-in-one?"

"I know. That's sick," Patterson said. "Remember I'm a fiction writer."

I asked, "There's so much political drama in the world today, real-life political drama. Do you think that there's an appetite for political thrillers, for fictional political thrillers?"

Patterson said, "I think so, 100%. I mean, one of the nice things here is you escape, but you don't totally escape reality. It's like, 'Yeah, I love this. I can't put it down.' Or 'I keep reading,' or in some cases to me what's even better, which is you don't want it to end.

"I think it's useful, and 'cause so many people are wandering around, they go, 'Oh my God, oh my God, please make it stop'? This makes it stop for a little while, makes the craziness stop for a little while for people."

Clinton said, "One reason I hope there's an appetite is… I hope that people will still believe in our democratic system enough to stick with it and keep pushing to make it work."

During the summer, Patterson lives at his home on the Hudson River; the president is about five miles away.

Asked what they may have learned about each other during the writing process, Patterson offered, "the notion … of not worrying about stuff that we can't do anything about. And if we can do something about it, try to do it."

Their new book comes out tomorrow and they hope it's another bestseller. But if you spend any time at all with Patterson and Clinton, you get the sense that their partnership is about something money can't buy.

I asked, "Back when you wrote your first book together, The New York Times said that the two of you 'complete each other in the Jerry Maguire sense.'"

"Well, we kinda do," Patterson said. "This has been driving me for months now, which is: my time here is short. What can I do most beautifully? And in this case, doing another book with my friend is a beautiful thing to do."

READ AN EXCERPT: "The First Gentleman" by Bill Clinton and James Patterson

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Story produced by John D'Amelio. Editor: Jason Schmidt.

• Bill Clinton
• James Patterson
• Books