Graf ton, like many detective fiction writers, builds her novels around a series character, to whom she refers as her alter-ego.

Grafton intends to take Kinsey Millhone all the way through the alphabet, producing a novel a year, although the timescale of the novels means that Millhone does not age synchronically with her author. O Is for Outlaw is a departure from its predecessors in that so much of the focus is on a matter very close to Millhone personally. Speaking in a forum on the Barnes & Noble Web site, the author, when asked why she has left it until now to reveal details concerning Magruder, lays the cause at the feet of her character: "the cranky Ms. Millhone rules the roost around here." In this same discussion, Grafton states that she is not consciously altering or developing the character of Millhone as the series progresses...