King Ahab's and Elijah's stories together began to fascinate me, starting with the last time I read through 1 Kings.
Ahab's character especially confounded me, as he was seen overall as an evil king but actually more seemed to constantly go back and forth between serving/praising the one true God - seeking repentance - and the false gods such as Baal that his wife Jezebel appeared to promote more than Ahab himself did (it was more like Ahab just went along with it simply because Jezebel was his wife). Wavering in character. Perhaps it was more the bloodthirsty and contemptuous (as a result of her idolatry) wife Jezebel that was Ahab's ultimate downfall, more than Ahab's character itself. I often wondered why especially in chapter 22 - seemingly immediately after Ahab had repented in sackcloth and ash in the last passage of chapter 21 (when confronted about allowing Jezebel to murder Naboth and take his property for her husband) and the Lord took note of this act as one of humility - that in the battle with Aram the Lord led Ahab to his death, as though He had intended to condemn him to death all along.
This is only my guess, but it seems that Ahab had once again waffled in character and his death by the stray arrow in battle at the end of chapter 22 was his punishment for seeking the word of prophets who went after false gods, before seeking the word of the Lord (as indicated to me when in 22:6 it says that Ahab "gathered the prophets together" to inquire if he and Jehoshaphat should go against Ramoth Gilead in battle, and even though they said yes, Jehoshapahat the more faithful king of Judah then asked if there was a prophet of the Lord whom they could inquire of. This leads me to believe that the four hundred prophets Ahab gathered to ask first were not of God but of Baal or other false gods. Once again indicating his being lured into trusting in false gods before the only true God of Israel, despite God having time and again proven in the past to Ahab that He is real, such as delivering Ben-Hadad's army to Israel in battle in chapter 20 and Elijah's altar being set ablaze when the Baal worshipers' would not in chapter 18.
That is only my speculation, though.