Again showing he can write a novel as well as he writes the nonfiction for which he’s known, Larry Wright focuses his wit and literary skill on his home state. Drawing on a deep knowledge of Texas politics—and his view of Lone Star politicking as part comedy, part tragedy—Wright spins a rollicking satirical tale about an ineffectual small-time rancher named Sonny Lamb who unexpectedly becomes a state house legislator. While Republican power brokers expect the novice Lamb to do as he’s told, Lamb has other ideas and struggles to balance environmental concerns and personal ethics against the pressures of veteran politicians and lobbyists. The characters turn out to be engagingly multilayered—much like a Texas barbecue sandwich—and their dilemmas as twisted as, well, a Texas tumbleweed in a dust storm.