Impeccably crafted entertainment
Goldberg's plots are always first-rate, but this one is especially suspenseful and surprising
Goldberg interweaves two storylines into a remarkably unconventional crime novel that is warm, thrilling, and fun to read
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
In Calico , Lee Goldberg seamlessly blends a present-day police procedural with a Western from the 1880s. The results are a genre-bending, gripping read
#1 New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben
A superb twin-track thriller featuring constant intrigue and a huge secret - could be Lee Goldberg's best ever
#1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child
11/20/2023
The latest standalone from Goldberg (after Malibu Burning ) is disappointingly void of the cleverness that animates his best work. Homicide detective Beth McDade lost her job with the LAPD after sleeping with a junior officer and ended up in Barstow, Calif., a backwater town in the Inland Empire with a bad reputation among law enforcement. After a long stretch of unsatisfying cases, McDade finally gets a challenge when a man is fatally stricken by an RV. The driver responsible claims that he was distracted by a lightning storm that no one else saw, which allegedly coincided with an explosion at a military base near the highway, and didn’t see the victim, who ran in front of the RV screaming, until it was too late. The reason for those screams is just one of many mysteries pertaining to the victim, who was dressed in clothes from a century earlier and had dental work that appeared to date back to the late 19th century. It’s an intriguing setup, and Goldberg keeps readers invested for a while, but the explanations McDade reaches are profoundly unsatisfying. Worse still is the lack of memorable characters. Even Goldberg’s diehard fans will be disappointed. Agent: Amy Tannenbaum, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Nov.)
A mind-bending thriller unlike anything I have read before. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough
New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author Linwood Barclay
"A superb twin-track thriller. Could be Lee Goldberg's best ever" LEE CHILD , #1 New York Times bestselling author
"A genre-bending, gripping read" HARLAN COBEN , #1 New York Times bestselling author
"I guarantee you’ve never read a crime novel like it. The X Files meets Deadwood . Totally gripping." IAN RANKIN , New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author
"A mind-bending thriller unlike anything I have read before" LINWOOD BARCLAY , New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author
"If you have time for only one mystery, one Western, and one SF this year, this will ding all three targets" Kirkus Reviews
"A riveting mystery. . . Goldberg expertly paces the narrative, ensuring continuous engagement until the thrilling conclusion"Mystery & Suspense Magazine
"A genre-busting, mystery-thriller that defies easy classification" CrimeTime FM
"A cleverly complex plot wreathed in Goldberg’s brilliant humour makes this a rocket-paced story" Historical Novels Review (Editors' Choice)
"A remarkably unconventional crime novel that is warm, thrilling, and fun to read"Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
"Goldberg’s plots are always first-rate, but this one is especially suspenseful and surprising"Booklist
"Goldberg has crafted is a page-turning novel that has surprises up to the final page. Calico is arguably one of his best"FirstCLUE
"Something altogether new, radical and exciting"Paperback Warrior
"A double-barreled blast, melding the tense, edge-of-your-seat contemporary police procedural with a gritty 1880s Wild West tale" The Roundup
"An entertaining story"Library Journal
"Stunningly original - a magical mixture of a murder mystery and an old-fashioned Western"MATT WITTEN , author of Killer Story
"Lee Goldberg delivers with the unapologetically savvy Beth McDade . . .Calico couples history with good old fashioned detective work"YASMIN ANGOE , award-winning author of the Nena Knight series
"A tour de force of a novel"JAMES ROBERT DANIELS , author of The Comanche Kid , a Spur Award finalist for Best Western Novel
"One of the most compelling novels I've read in a long time" JAMES REASONER , Spur-Award finalist and author of more than 350 Westerns
"A two-fisted western mystery with a compelling heroine in Beth McDade. If you like the Yellowstone series and its spinoffs, you'll love Calico !"PETER BRANDVOLD , multiple Spur Award finalist and Western Fictioneers Lifetime Achievement Award honoree
"If you’re looking for an exciting mystery within a mystery, flawed characters who work toward redemption, and a few unexpected twists, you should read Calico "Kings River Life Magazine
Goldberg has crafted is a page-turning novel that has surprises up to the final page. Calico is arguably one of his best
A tour de force of a novel. The authenticity is overwhelming, the writing is taut, and the mystery is thoroughly engrossing
Lee Goldberg delivers with the unapologetically savvy Beth McDade, a detective unafraid of following the dead bodies and the mystery surrounding them. Calico couples history with good old fashioned detective work
award-winning author of the Nena Knight series Yasmin Angoe
A two-fisted western mystery with a compelling heroine in Beth McDade. If you like the Yellowstone series and its spinoffs, you'll love Calico !"
multiple Spur Award finalist and Western Fictionee Peter Brandvold
One of the most compelling novels I've read in a long time. Great characters, a vivid historical setting, and intriguing plot twists had me staying up late to finish it. Goldberg always delivers the goods, and Calico is something special
Spur-Award finalist and author of more than 350 we James Reasoner
Something altogether new, radical and exciting
Calico is stunningly original - a magical mixture of a murder mystery and an old-fashioned Western, set in the California desert. It's also a heartwarming, epic story of one family that spans the centuries. Read it today - you won't soon forget it!
author of Killer Story Matt Witten
Typically classy police procedural from Lee Goldberg - giving Michael Connelly a run for his money
10/01/2023
Beth McDade is an ex-LAPD detective, banished to the only California town that will accept her, Barstow, in the Mojave Desert. Afterhours are spent drinking and having sex, at least until Feb. 3, 2019. On Feb. 2, a terrified man runs in front of an RV and is killed. The coroner discovers that his clothes were made in the 1800s. Topping this, an extinct grizzly bear attacks a camper. Then there's the disappearance of Owen Slader, on his way from Las Vegas to LA. When his bones are found a week later, they appear to be over 100 years old. There's also the discovery of some sort of explosion at two local marine bases and a man's historical appearance out of nowhere in the mining town of Calico in 1882, but McDade is stonewalled when she asks questions about these events. While she digs into happenings that seem to make no sense, readers are clued in to what really happened to Slader, events that affect his descendants until 2019. VERDICT In an unusual mash-up, the author of the Eve Ronin books combines police procedural, Western historical, and time travel. An entertaining story for those who can suspend disbelief.—Lesa Holstine
2023-08-23
Fired from the LAPD over an affair with a junior officer, Beth McDade has to settle for working as a detective for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office in Barstow. The town has its share of burglaries and such, but Beth’s latest case is something else entirely. A ghostly figure has appeared screaming out of thin air and run into the path of a mobile home outside Peggy Sue’s in Yermo one stormy night. The dead man has no identifying papers, and the contents of his pockets all date from the 1880s. The weirdness is only intensified by the discovery of a skeleton that seems to be that of missing chef and food writer Owen Slader, even though pregnant coroner Amanda Selby identifies it as a century old despite its Tommy Bahama shirt and state-of-the-art dental and orthopedic implants. So what’s going on here? Beth’s increasingly bewildered inquiries lead her to focus on the history of the Calico silver mine, which flourished more than a century ago, and the possibility that the best place to get answers may be the nearby Marine Corps Logistics Base, whose security chief, Bill Knox, is another of Beth’s ex-flings. The Marines, being Marines, aren’t eager to enlighten her, and she’s left searching for leads while the story follows Owen in the days before his remains are discovered, into worlds that will seriously challenge readers’ suspension of disbelief even as they expand the boundaries of the police procedural in rip-roaring ways.
If you have time for only one mystery, one Western, and one SF this year, this will ding all three targets.
