IOWA CITY — Whether readers remember former Newton Daily News news editor Dan Ehl and his column “Running Rampant” as famous or infamous, it’s fair to say the writer is difficult to forget.

The 15-year veteran of the NDN sat down Saturday to talk about his new book, “Jak Barley — Private Inquisitor, and the case of the Seven Dwarves.” The novel is a sequel to Ehl’s first book, “Jak Barley — Private Inquisitor, and the Temple of Dorga, Fish-headed God of Death.”

Drinking a Budweiser tallboy on the patio at the Deadwood bar in downtown Iowa City, Ehl alluded to subtle parallels that may, or may not, exist between him and his protagonist — a medieval private investigator charged with the task of finding the wicked witch who poisoned the young maiden Frost Ivory.