I have to say this was fantastic! The only reason why I didn't give it 5 stars is that I guessed what happened with the mystery about who wrote the essay. I loved the callback to a past case of VI's and her annoying nemesis from that one popping up in this one (Marcena Love).

In "Death on the Edge" VI gets involved in introducing Marcena to her old school in order to talk to a teacher who is concerned about an essay that was submitted describing the death of the essay writer's uncle. When VI pops up though she finds the teacher dead and a whole lot of confusion about what is going on. VI being her, she quickly figures out what happened.

Marcena may have learned a bit after the events from Fire Sale, but she still sucks though. 

The writing was tight in this one. I love short stories done well and Paretsky kicks butt in this one. I could have read even more and wish that Paretsky would think about putting together another collection of short stories starring VI and the people who move around in her world. I also loved the writing focusing on murders occurring in Chicago and how it was impacting her old school which is now full of a lot of minorities not getting the help that they need. 

The flow was perfect throughout too.

The end came too quick, but it was very well done. 

What a great short story by Paretsky. An old nemesis returns from one of her prior books (Fire Sale) and though the story veers off in a way I wasn't expecting, I loved the ending. I wouldn't mind another collection by her or if they can consolidate all of her shorty stories from the past few years. I am not really in the mood to pay $1.99 a story.