Calico by Lee Goldberg

 

‘You’re probably right, but you have to admit this case is weird,’ Amanda said. ‘It’s like he walked out of the 1800s and into the path of a motor home.’

A curious one here—an author I’ve enjoyed before offers us a neo-Western and a kinda/sorta traditional Western at the same time.

I tip nothing to say we have twin timelines: literally.

One—A police procedural in the Michael Connelly mode, or even in the mode of the author’s own Eve Ronin series [a few of which I have read and enjoyed.]

Two—The second timeline, a time-travel to the Old West tale.

Allow me to state, I have enjoyed other work from this author and was looking forward to this tale.

But…this one strikes me as either rushed or as a prose draft of an idea intended to be a television script.

Exposition is fast and to the point, but, again, but…many chapters feel as if, “Yeah, this is where the commercial break would be.”

“This is where David Caruso would slide off his sunglasses and deliver his out-the-door line.”

The book is a bit of a déjà vu in the sense that when it is set in the modern era, I am reminded of Michael Connelly’s Renee Ballard series without the complexity.

And once we have the time-travel timeline I kept harkening back to Michael Crichton’s Timeline which dealt with the mechanics of how this would occur with far more conviction. That novel also deals with the time-culture shock in an interesting manner.

Here, our time-traveler arrives in a new timeline and seems to go “Wow, I’m in the Old West. Weird.”

We have none of the cognitive struggle that I would presume ensue as one slowly comprehends the anomaly that is occurring.

Here, the move from realization to coping is staggeringly blithe.

I end with, Mr. Goldberg is a talented author and an indulgent man [he was kind enough to correspond with me on a topic years ago—Thank you, Sir!]

This is simply a misfire for this single reader as many seem to enjoy this one very much.

Let us assume the majority has it right.