"Novelist Christopher Moore says he isn't very good at giving elevator speeches — those quick pitches on your latest project that Hollywood screenwriters are so good at.

"'[That's] one of the reasons I probably don't work in Hollywood,' Moore tells NPR's Scott Simon. But if he had to give a brief rundown of his latest novel,Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art, he says, 'I'd talk about it being a book about the color blue, and about solving the murder of Vincent van Gogh and the sort of mystical quality of making art. And it's funny.'"

"The narrative winds all around late 19th century Paris through artists' homes, cafes and brothels. But it begins and ends with a meditation on blue."