"O" is for Outlaw

Sue Grafton

Apr 2010 · Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries Book 15 · Sold by Holt Paperbacks

About this ebook

“Grafton keeps pulling out surprises- and pulling us in.” —Entertainment Weekly on "O" is for Outlaw

Through fourteen books, fans have been fed short rations when it comes to Kinsey Millhone's past: a morsel here, a dollop there. We know of the aunt who raised her, the second husband who left her, the long-lost family up the California coast. But husband number one remained a blip on the screen until now.

The call comes on a Monday morning from a guy who scavenges defaulted storage units at auction. Last week he bought a stack. They had stuff in them--Kinsey stuff. For thirty bucks, he'll sell her the lot. Kinsey's never been one for personal possessions, but curiosity wins out and she hands over a twenty (she may be curious but she loves a bargain). What she finds amid childhood memorabilia is an old undelivered letter.

It will force her to reexamine her beliefs about the breakup of that first marriage, about the honor of that first husband, about an old unsolved murder. It will put her life in the gravest peril."O" Is for Outlaw: Kinsey's fifteenth adventure into the dark side of human nature.


"A" Is for Alibi
"B" Is for Burglar
"C" Is for Corpse
"D" Is for Deadbeat
"E" Is for Evidence
"F" Is for Fugitive
"G" Is for Gumshoe
"H" Is for Homicide
"I" Is for Innocent
"J" Is for Judgment
"K" Is for Killer
"L" is for Lawless
"M" Is for Malice
"N" Is for Noose
"O" Is for Outlaw
"P" Is for Peril
"Q" Is for Quarry
"R" Is for Ricochet
"S" Is for Silence
"T" Is for Trespass
"U" Is for Undertow
"V" Is for Vengeance
"W" Is for Wasted
"X"

Ratings and reviews

BOTTOM-LINE: Pretty good story, could have been a contender. . PLOT OR PREMISE: Kinsey gets a blast from the past from her ex-husband, Mickey Magruder. . WHAT I LIKED: Kinsey finds out that when she walked out of their marriage thinking he was guilty of murder/manslaughter, he actually had an alibi that he didn't reveal. He was never convicted, and in the years since, they've had no contact. It's interesting to see her work through a sense of guilt and a desire to know the real truth. Before she finds him, someone shoots him on the street and he's in a coma. Soon she's wearing his leather jacket and hunting down his shooter. The story is solid but does jump around quite a bit to get to the final bit. . WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The solution is a bit "out there" for pieces tying together, and like a couple of the previous books, feels a little unfair to the reader. Not as bad as previous, however. . DISCLOSURE: I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the author, nor do I follow her on social media.

When she used the phrase "jumping up and down like a Zulu" I had to stop reading. Slap in the face racism. I'd noticed her more passive racism in a previous book where a black character was mentioned twice, with the adjective black or African American. All other characters' physical appearance and behavior was described in detail, clearly white. Its the all too common view people are white and everyone else is "other" and needs an adjective. The Zulu comment is the last straw.

Love Kinsey!

About the author

#1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton (1940-2017) entered the mystery field in 1982 with the publication of 'A' Is for Alibi, which introduced female hard-boiled private investigator, Kinsey Millhone, operating out of the fictional town of Santa Teresa, (aka Santa Barbara) California, and launched the bestselling Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries. In addition to her books, she’d published several Kinsey Millhone short stories, and with her husband, Steven Humphrey, wrote numerous movies for television, including “A Killer in the Family” (starring Robert Mitchum), “Love on the Run” (starring Alec Baldwin and Stephanie Zimbalist) and two Agatha Christie adaptations, “Sparkling Cyanide” and “Caribbean Mystery,” which starred Helen Hayes. Grafton is published in 28 countries and in 26 languages.