O is for Outlaw
by Sue Grafton
Santa Teresa's babe of a detective, Kinsey Malone, makes her 15th appearance in Sue Grafton's best seller, "O" Is For Outlaw.
Once again, the tough cookie private investigator is scraping out a living in Santa Teresa (a thinly disguised Santa Barbara) when her past comes back to haunt her with a vengeance. A curious phone call alerts Kinsey to a treasure box filled with mementos of the past Ð her past. A self-proclaimed "storage scavenger" contacts her and lets it be known that, for a small price, he will sell Kinsey a cardboard box filled with documents and items that are, obviously, from her own childhood years. "We got a pink-bead baby bracelet," the man on the phone explains, "and there's quite a collection of school-type memorabilia: drawings, class pictures, report card from Woodrow Wilson Elementary. This ringin' any bells with you?"
Kinsey, who's hard edge veneer usually helps her to shrug off most personal entanglements, replies, "My name is on these papers?" The voice on the other end of the line continues, "Kinsey Millhone, right? Millhone with two I's?"
The long lost school papers and letters belong to Kinsey all right. Packed away by her old Aunt Gin who raised her since the Memorial Day when her parents perished in a car crash when Kinsey was barely 5 years old. What else could this Pandora's box contain?
From this intriguing beginning, "O" Is For Outlaw leads the fictional female detective and the reader on a chris crossed path of memories, murder and mayhem. Grafton's book uncovers more insights into her character's personality and angst as the story line returns again and again on past mistakes and, ultimately forgiveness and a tender understanding that softens the rough edges of Kinsey's heart.
Read our biography of Sue Grafton.
