Calico

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.