'O' Is For Outlaw, by Sue Grafton

(pb; 1999: fifteenth book in the Kinsey Millhone mysteries)

From the back cover:

"Once Mickey Magruder was a cop with a wild streak. And Kinsey Millhone was a younger cop who adored and married him. Then Mickey was implicated in a fatal beating, and Kinsey walked out. Now, fourteen years later, she comes face-to-face with those tragic yars and Mickey's harrowing downward spiral after he lost the job he loved -- and the marriage he loved a little less.

"Mickey lies dying in an L.A. hospital. Trying to find out how Mickey got there, Kinsey uncovers evidence that he was innocent of the beating charges. But as she searches through the lives that swirled around Mickey's -- lives gone wrong and lives gone well -- Kinsey must also search the blind spots of her own life, including one that hides a killer."

Review:

One of the more personal Kinsey Millhone novels, this -- and one of the best.

Kinsey is trying to find out why her first ex-husband was shot, the victim of intended murder. In doing so, this means she has to recover some uncomfortable elements and characters from her now-more-dangerous past.

Like the other Kinsey reads, this starts as a slow first-few-chapters burn, building to a full-forest plot blaze, as Kinsey uncovers secrets, clues and more unsavory characters than you can beat down with a Whack-A-Mole club.

Excellent, as usual. This series is one of the best detective series I've ever read.

Followed by 'P' Is For Peril.