Cooper and Davis are a couple of jam band-obsessed Texas ex-pats growing some of Denver’s finest organic cannabis and living the good life on tour. Or, at least they were, until legal weed put the squeeze on their market and cramped their playboy lifestyle.

When their last out-of-state distributor gets busted by an Illinois task force, they’re left with no choice but to turn to their reckless former associate Elroy Sancho Watts to unload one last crop down in Teller County, Texas.

But Sancho Watts has troubles of his own in the form of Texas Ranger Russ Kirkpatrick, tasked under the table with nailing Watts for anything that will stick because of his involvement in the drug-induced suicide of a state senator’s son.

Not to mention his infamous new business partner, Heisman quarterback and NFL burnout Bobby Burnell, a man working to rise from the ashes of his self-destructed football career by making a name for himself in his criminally inclined Teller County family, no matter who he has to double-cross to get there.

What ensues is a pine-curtain criminal jamboree where everyone involved keeps their cards close to their vest, and all the high-stakes two-stepping is sure to result in bloodshed.

Praise for TEXAS TWO-STEP:

Tough and taut, Texas Two-Step packs a punch. Michael Pool delivers. –Sam Wiebe, award-winning author of Cut You Down

Texas Two-Step is a shotgun marriage between the Coen brothers and Joe Lansdale. Come for the gun-slinging, drug-dealing hijinks, but stay for the witty characterizations and whip-crack plotting that drives this humdinger to its action-packed denouement. Michael Pool follows up on every ounce of promise he’s shown so far as one of Texas crime fiction’s hottest rising star. Make room on your bookshelf for Texas’ own Elmore Leonard! –Eryk Pruitt, author of Dirtbags, Hashtag, and What We Reckon

Michael Pool’s Texas Two-Step is a gritty adventure in the spirit of True Romance and Savages, filled with weed, bullets, double-crosses, and even a messy sort of redemption. –Nick Kolakowski, author of Slaughterhouse Blues and A Brutal Bunch of Heartbroken Saps

Michael Pool spins a story that’s got kick. Take a couple of desperate pot growers and a truckload of weed crossing state lines, throw in a gauntlet of thugs, losers and backstabbers, along with law enforcement watching and listening in, and you’ve got Texas Two-Step. A story that’s got pace, terrific characters and some unexpected turns. Everything you want in a crime novel. –Dietrich Kalteis, award-winning author of Zero Avenue, House of Blazes, Triggerfish, The Deadbeat Club and Ride the Lightning

Some things, once you get into them, they’re hard as blue blazes to get out of. I would count Michael’s book as one of them. It’s almost impossible to put down, and, even when you finish it, it won’t let go of you. They say to write what you know. If Michael followed that line of reasoning, I’m a little worried about him. I hope he makes out alright. –Tim Bryant, author of the Dutch Curridge series

Michael Pool’s spot-on descriptions in this crime caper make for a good read with its own voice. –Earl Javorsky, author of Down Solo and Trust Me