"The Yankee Sphinx" may sound like a mysterious novel in line with "Twin Peaks," which author Mark Frost co-created, but it's much more normal than the famous surrealist crime drama.

Note: I said "more normal."

The novel is about President Franklin D. Roosevelt — nicknamed the Yankee Sphinx — and his presidency in the later years of World War II. There was very little that was "normal" about that period, considering the novel covers FDR's third full term and partial fourth term as president.

Then, there's the matter of the novel's source material: a clandestine diary kept by FDR's longtime staffer and friend William D. Hassett.

Frost stopped by KUOW while on tour to talk about someone who has classically dealt in the weird and uncanny came to write something so normal.