Book Lust With Nancy Pearl (seattle Channel)

Jamie Harrison's "The River View" follows archaeologist and private investigator Jules Clement as the people of his small Montana town pull him in mysterious and murderous directions. The returning Book Lust guest told host Nancy Pearl the fictional town of Blue Deer is based on her own hometown, though perhaps with a few more suspicious deaths per capita. They discussed the challenge of returning for this fifth installment of the Jules Clement novels, the fun of writing from the perspective of someone not quite like the author herself, and what she's working on next.

Bill Morris' nonfiction book "The Lions Finally Roar" was nearly titled "Natural-Born Losers," that is, of course, until the Detroit NFL team's record took a turn for the better. Morris told host (and Detroiter herself) Nancy Pearl he found a compelling story in what he called the Lions' "culture of futility," fueled largely by loyalty to the wrong people. The book isn't just about sports, though, as he said, "I didn't want to write a football book. I wanted to write a book about Detroit and the people of Detroit."

The protagonists in Jasper Fforde's "Red Side Story" live in Chromatacia, a place where "The hierarchy is based not on something mundane like voting for people, but on the colors that you can see." A sequel to "Shades of Grey," the book is packed with humor, adventure, murderous plots, and a dash of romance. In this edition of Book Lust, Fforde and host Nancy Pearl delve into Chromatica's reflections of our own world, as well as their views on fantasy, satire, and the wonder of audiobooks.