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From "A" through "N," Sue Grafton parcels out dribs and drabs of
Kinsey Millhone's past. The aunt who raised her after her parents were killed
in an auto accident, some long lost cousins, her vanished second husband --- all have
entered the storyline to flesh out our heroine and draw her fans into another absorbing
mystery.
About her brief, failed first marriage we've been kept in the dark, until
now. In "O" IS FOR OUTLAW, Kinsey finds herself confronting her past
and defending her future when a scavenger offers to sell her a box of memorabilia which
includes documents in her name, retrieved from an abandoned storage locker. Her
curiosity gets the better of her and she is confronted with once laid-to-rest ghosts and
former colleagues as she attempts to sort out the mess her ex-cop and ex-husband Mickey
McGruder has once again gotten himself into. It's not a pleasant stroll down
memory lane as Kinsey becomes a major suspect in a shooting that has left Mickey in a coma
with the trail of evidence leading directly to her.
We're treated to a grand new array of characters and for those who were disappointed by
the absence of the ubiquitous little black dress in "N" IS FOR NOOSE, Kinsey
finds several occasions to don something fancier than her favorite turtleneck and jeans as
she visits old pals who have climbed the ladder of success since her days as a
cop.
"O" IS FOR OUTLAW, number 15 in the alphabet series, romps along at a goodly
pace as Kinsey comes to terms with some rough patches out of her past. She finds she may
have misjudged her first husband on one very important count, but discovers that her
instincts still were not wrong when she walked. Grafton provides several
interesting twists and turns along the way, and "O" may stand out as one of the
better recent books in the popular series.
--- Reviewed by Roz Shea
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