"O" Is for Outlaw

Rating:
Summary: Better than the recent entries
Review: If you aren't a Kinsey fan and you're looking at getting into the series - you should probably start at the beginning. Not that you couldn't enjoy this book by itself. In my opinion, its the best of the books since at least K is for Killer - the series had started to sag once Kinsey's family got involved - and Kinsey is once again in fine form. This time on the hunt for her ex-husband's attempted murderer - the book has a satisfying (yet somewhat contrived) conclusion. With the requisite wit of any Millhoune mystery - this one satisfies, and I'm definitely looking forward to the rest.

Rating:
Summary: Kinsey's first husband appears from her past
Review: This is the 15th novel in the author's alphabet series. The year is 1986. Kinsey's first husband was never that far away, but they had not been in contact for 14 years. A box of old belongings, from an abandoned storage unit, and a visit by two LAPD detectives, drags Kinsey back into her past. She ends up investigating why her ex-husband was shot. Dredging into the past, she discovers she misjudged him in regard to one issue, but had been blind to a different fault.

Investigation of both the past and present reveals an entirely different picture of things from what Kinsey had believed, and it becomes a whodunit until the real villain is revealed. Along the way, we discover some flaws in Kinsey's own character. She risks major criminal prosecution to obtain some minor gains (the scene with the dog is funny), and fails to cooperate with the police to the point of being obstructive. She also does enough dumb things to make one wonder how she survives. Perhaps the criminals are dumber.

Overall, the book is light reading for a rainy day. There is some violence, but nothing overly graphic. There is some mention of sexual encounters, but nothing descriptive.

Rating:
Summary: O is For Outlaw
Review: Sometimes we jump to a decision before we investigate but when we finally realize our wrong decision it is almost or too late. This is portrayed in the Sue Grafton novel, O Is For Outlaw, first published in 1999. This novel shows the life of a PI, Kinsey Millhone,- ex-wife of a wild cop caught in the middle of a horrible, fatal beating. The whole reason for Kinsey finding the truth comes from a call from a man who has some of her belongings. She wants to know how a perfect stranger gets a hold of her personal belongings. Her investigation leads her back to her ex-husband on whom she had walked out ten years prior.

The story takes place in Santa Teresa, California. A woman by the name Kinsey Millhone was married to a former wild LA cop, Mickey Magrude, who loved his job more then his own family. About ten years prior Mickey was caught in the middle of a fatal beating of a man with at a well-known cop hang out, the Honky Tonk. All fingers seem to be pointing at Mickey, but he swore he never laid a blow on the man. Mickey asked Kinsey to lie for him (about where he was that night) and she walked out on him. Ten years later, she gets a call from a complete stranger asking if she wants her stuff back.. she goes to get a box of her belongings that had been auctioned off because Mickey wasn't paying his storage fees. She goes through the stuff and finds a letter from a woman by the name Dixie who was the bartended at the Honky Tonk. Well come to find out Mickey and she had been together that night and he had nothing to do with the mans death. The reason he asked her to lie was so he did not hurt Kinsey. Kinsey goes to find Mickey to settle their problems but finds out in her investigation to find him that he has resonantly been shot, but the gun used was Kinsey's. (Which she did not have possession of at the time, Mickey did.) Kinsey is the main suspect in the investigation to find Mickey's shooter.

This novel is a bazaar situation that Kinsey Millhone tells through her own eyes. Through her, we are able to see how it is when the tables are turned. This novel is a great intense story, I recommend it for a person who likes twists and enjoys a author that gives more then enough visual description.

Rating:
Summary: Oh-Oh-Oh!
Review: Sue Grafton just keeps spelling out winner after winner and "O is for Outlaw" proves that to her avid fans."O" gives us glimpses into Kinsey past while drawing us into the midst of another great mystery. Grab a copy today, you won't be disappointed.
Beverly J Scott author of Righteous Revenge

Rating:
Summary: She Asks the Right Questions
Review: Sue Grafton proves again that she is a superb stylist as well as a spinner of fine yarns. This one involves kinsey's ex-husband, former cop Mickey MacGruder, whom she walked out on a decade earlier, believing he had been involved in a beating death and then tried to get her to lie for him in order to cover it up. The surface story has Kinsey trying solve the msytery of why MacGruder was recently shot (he lies in a coma throughout the whole of the story); and the back story, perhaps the most compelling part of the book, takes us all the way back to the Viet Nam Conflict and sheds new light on the men who served in that war and an unsolved (and largely unknown) murder that is the key to solving all the subsequent murders. As usual, Kinsey learns that people are not what they seem to be. Your friend is your enemy; your enemy is your friend. As usual, the driving force, as in all of Grafton's books, is the need to know. She asks the questions, and we are forced to stick around to see their answers. This book begins with one that is simple yet engaging: Where did this box with all of my (Kinsey's) grade school papers come from? Answer: from your ex-husband, who let his storage lockbox payment lapse. Why didn't he pay it? Answer: He has been shot and is in a coma going on three months. Who shot him? Answer: The police think you did it, Kinsey. Me? I haven't seen the man in ten years. Why would they think I did it? Answer: Read the book. You won't be able to put it down.

p.s. The minor characters in this book, like Henry and the two maiden sisters, are so charming as to be worth the price of the book, though Grafton does seem to have an inexplicable penchant for octogenarians.

Rating:
Summary: At last -- Kinsey gets a heart
Review: Frankly, I was giving up on Kinsey and the Alphabet mysteries. At first I thought her reticence was intriguing, but after a dozen books with no sign of a human side, I was beginning to find it pathological. I wanted more humanity and compassion for herself from Kinsey. Finally, this books delivers it.

The past is the downfall of many tough women detectives. My current new favorite, Mickey Knight from the talented pen of JM Redmann, has a past no one would want and only the strong can survive. Same, too, with Kinsey, but both Grafton and Redmann are too good to make such a character device a mere tool. Grafton, having so many books in print, has done a fine job of burying the hints to Kinsey's past and in this book allows most of them to surge up, but the hints come together in a surprising way, one I simply did not expect. Truthfully, her reticence WAS pathological. And now we know why.

I'm hooked all over again.

Rating:
Summary: A series well worth reading!
Review: I am a big fan of Sue Grafton and I would like to say that I have enjoyed her latest series. This book is however a little different than the others in the series because it shows a more emotional Kinsey Millhone than before. A difference that I personally enjoyed. It made the character seem more real to me.
A super effort by this wonderful writer in her "O is for Outlaw".

Rating:
Summary: A Suspenseful Mystery That Won't Disappoint!
Review: O is for Outlaw by wonderful writer Sue Grafton is a suspenseful mystery that had me quickly turning the pages as fast as I could. And let me say after I finished the story, I was not disappointed!

Unlike the other books in the alphabet series, O is for Outlaw shows a different more vulnerable side to key character female detective Kinsey Millhone when her compulsive fact finding side gets tangled up with her emotional side.

O for Outlaw is a story well worth the read!

Rating:
Summary: O is for OK
Review: O is for Outlaw was my second attempt at Grafton's alphabet series. I had the bad guy figured out early in N is for Noose. That story had some flawed detective work. O is harder to figure out and there aren't any obvious miscues by Kinsey. O is a much different story that N was.

In O Kinsey follows up after her first ex-husband is shot and left in a coma. While there's detective work involved there are also revelations about Kinsey's first husband and their marriage. I suppose this is interesting if you are a series aficionado. Grafton does use it well to round out her enigmatic detective. Otherwise the story, the links and the related detective work seem a little forced. However, it's a reasonably good detective story with a more satisfactory conclusion than N is for Noose albeit with some ennui.

I did find one technical fault with O is for Outlaw. A key to the puzzle is a patent used in the Mercury space program. The patent was supposed to have made its inventor wealthy. It doesn't happen that way in real life. NASA volumes are so low that a royalty on a patent probably wouldn't pay the patenting fees. As the owner of a firm that has done aerospace work said to me, "Nobody gets rich supplying to NASA. Space work is all about prestige." So a major cornerstone of the novel is reduced to rubble. Otherwise it holds together reasonably well.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to finish
Review: I've tried for several weeks now to read this book, but it is just boring. It had a lot of potential w/ it being about Mickey, hubby #1, but it became so bogged down w/ trivial stuff and no action that I fell asleep nearly every night reading it. I do like Dietz and Robb is O.K. (stupid, but O.K.) It'd be nice to see her really work on a case w/ one of them again, instead of calling them, or thinking a quick thought about them.
I've enjoyed about 60% of the others, with G being my favorite, but I really don't care a whole lot about Kinsey. She's becoming even more bitter and nasty. I'd like to see some growth on her part. I've heard P's not any better. But, I'll give it a try. 26 books are an awful lot about one person, but perhaps Kinsey will find happiness.