Booklist
Goldberg's plots are always first-rate, but this one is especially suspenseful and surprising
The Times
Impeccably crafted entertainment
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
Goldberg interweaves two storylines into a remarkably unconventional crime novel that is warm, thrilling, and fun to read
New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author Linwood Barclay
A mind-bending thriller unlike anything I have read before. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough
Mystery & Suspense Magazine
A riveting mystery. . .Goldberg expertly paces the narrative, ensuring continuous engagement until the thrilling conclusion
#1 New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben
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 Lee Child
A superb twin-track thriller featuring constant intrigue and a huge secret - could be Lee Goldberg's best ever
FirstCLUE
Goldberg has crafted is a page-turning novel that has surprises up to the final page. Calico is arguably one of his best
Kirkus Reviews
If you have time for only one mystery, one Western, and one SF this year, this will ding all three targets
Library Journal
An entertaining story
From the Publisher
"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
James Robert Daniels
A tour de force of a novel. The authenticity is overwhelming, the writing is taut, and the mystery is thoroughly engrossing
award-winning author of the Nena Knight series Yasmin Angoe
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
multiple Spur Award finalist and Western Fictionee Peter Brandvold
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!"
Spur-Award finalist and author of more than 350 we James Reasoner
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
author of Killer Story Matt Witten
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!
Paperback Warrior
Something altogether new, radical and exciting
Ian Rankin on Movieland
Typically classy police procedural from Lee Goldberg - giving Michael Connelly a run for his money
Kirkus Reviews
2023-08-23
Hold onto your hats. A fatal but otherwise routine accident in rural California turns out to be not exactly either one.
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.
