As befits its genre, O Is for Outlaw is plotdriven toward a definitive ending and its tone of voice characterized by a wry sense of humor or sarcasm. The narrative also presents characters, events and action in great detail, sharing this aspect with the nineteenth-century realist novel, alongside which the genre grew. The style suits the focalization through the detective, who is a character from whom no minute detail escapes and the reader is closely aligned with the detective in this observatory and analytical role through the almost mathematically precise descriptions. Although characters are not given much depth generally, they are usually subject to close physical scrutiny of the narrator's eye which effects a sense of judging by appearances and again aligns the reader closely with the detective's perspective, as in this description on first meeting Mr. Rich: His face was a big ruddy square, his sunburn extending...