Crisis Specialist Thea Kozak is a well-drawn character and the reader "sees" her immediately. Even though the story is told in first person. Thea is not a first-person camera; she is involved in the story emotionally as well as physically. When she's called in to defuse a stalking situation on the campus of a private high school academy, she meets up with subterfuge she didn't expect. Her own feelings toward the victim, who seems to also be victimized by the school administration, intensify Kozak's need to get at the truth.
This is the seventh Thea Kozak mystery since 1994, and Thea's also personal life comes into play. Flora didn't delve into a lot of background information, which is good. Although references to Kozak's last mystery involvement is alluded to, it isn't necessary to know all the details to make this story work.
The major adult characters were nicely depicted, as well as that of the victim, Shondra Jones. The student population didn't come across as mid-teen people, mostly because they were sketchy. The conclusion, while plausible, left several holes and question about why certain early incidents had been put in the story and why others hadn't been highlighted more to show the complexity of the situation.
I'm grousing way too much! The story really read well and engaged me more than enough to get to the end. It was only in retrospect that I had questions. I tend to over-analyze stories, and this was probably the case with Stalking Death.