Sue Grafton's been writing her alphabet soup mystery novels, starring Kinsey Milhone, since the early 1980's. O is for Outlaw is the... (he counts on fingers) fourteenth entry in the series -- the fifteenth (P is for Peril) is already in the can and ready for release in fall, 2001. Grafton's formula for immense success has been aped by several other authors, among them Linda Evanovich's counting books -- she's up to six now. That puts Grafton in the a league above the cooking sleuths and the pets-as-partners genre.

In Outlaw, our heroine hears a wake-up call from the past when her (first) ex-husband is found gravely wounded in an L.A. alley. The weapon? The .357 Mickey Magruder gave her for a wedding present, which she hasn't seen in the fifteen years since she walked out his door. Kinsey naturally plunges headlong into an unauthorized investigation, unearthing elements of her past that she thought she'd buried forever in headlong flight from that doomed marriage to an obvious father figure. The trail leads through the bar where she and Mickey had hung out; wraps around the series of waitresses and barflies that Mickey bedded before, during, and after their brief marriage; and winds through the distant, tangled past of two long-dead Kentucky men. Kinsey, of course, nabs the the culprit in Mickey's shooting and solves the other two murders, too, in a single stroke.

When I read M is for Malice, I was disturbed by the chronology: the ages and birthdates of the characters did not seem to jibe. In a foreword to O is for Outlaw, Grafton "reminds" her readers that Kinsey's stuck in a time warp -- the book's action takes place in 1986, not 2000 (which makes the chronology of M somewhat more reasonable). As a result of this time warp, Kinsey still takes all her notes on 3 x 5 index cards, drives a VW Super Beetle, jogs in sweats instead of spandex, and lacks the modern accouterments of crime-solving: the internet, cell phones, even a computer. This explains why the veterans she meets in Outlaw survived Vietnam, not the Gulf War; and why Californians haven't deserted the state in droves after a season of fire + flood + earthquake to set up housekeeping in Colorado.

What makes people read Grafton's novels? Even her most devoted fans cannot escape the fact that the mysteries follow a simple formula:

- Two (and sometimes three) seemingly disparate but actually coincident occurrences will introduce Kinsey to her latest case.
- At least once each, Kinsey will make reference to using fingernail scissors for impromptu haircuts, and to owning a single dress: a black synthetic number suitable for any occasion from funeral to high-society party.
- Kinsey will have an uneasy relationship with the police on the case, whom she'll ultimately assuage by solving an unrelated crime committed by one of the "obvious" (but nevertheless not guilty) suspects.
- Kinsey will continue to eat junk food as if it were ambrosia, while never gaining an ounce.
- The real murderer will be a continuously peripheral character; he/she will never be one of the obvious suspects on whom Grafton lavishes attention.

O is for Outlaw follows this formula, with the requisite narrow escapes and low-speed chases for Kinsey in her battered bug. This book is one of the few in the series in which Kinsey isn't beaten to a pulp; a welcome change from the norm.

In all honesty, I don't know why Grafton's series remains so successful -- I suppose it's because the waifish Kinsey is childish enough that she brings out the maternal/paternal side of her readers. In fact, I think she's so relentlessly childlike that she's gotten obnoxious! In stark contrast to her boy-child manner is that just-below-the-surface whining about her lackluster sex life; a fixture in this (and several other female sleuth) series. On the whole, however, Kinsey acts impulsively, fails to assess her risk factors, and interacts with authority figures as if she were a teenage boy.

O is for Outlaw is just another letter in the series. By the time all twenty-six books have been written -- only twelve to go (including the inevitable X is for Xylophone) -- we'll find Kinsey three years older and not a day smarter. Perhaps Grafton needs to give her character a makeover. I, for one, think it's time she started growing up, and I wish she'd start living in the present -- the eighties are not a decade deserving of much nostalgia. There are many sleuth series in which the protagonist has kept current for the last fifteen or twenty years without having to remain in a time warp. The willing suspension of disbelief can easily handle the fact that Kay Scarpetta hasn't aged a year in the last ten or that Spenser and Susan haven't aged at all in twenty or so. Why can't Kinsey ditch the VW for a Hyundai and stop carrying a roll of quarters for pay phones, too?


Recommended: Yes