Title: The Body Finder
Author: Kimberly Derting
Series: The Body Finder #1
Release Date: March 1st 2010
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 336
ISBN: 0061779814 (ISBN13: 9780061779817)
Synopsis from goodreads.com:
Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world . . . and the imprints that attach to their killers.
Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.
Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved by her hope that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer . . . and becoming his prey herself.
Violet is a teenager with a creepy "gift". She can hear echoes the dead people, the ones who died murdered, leave. And she also sense the killers, since the echoes attach to them like an imprint. When several girls are murdered, and the police have no clues, Violet is only one who can find the killer.
I read this book on my computer (still waiting for my Kindle to arrive) and even when my eyes begin to suffer, I didn't stop reading. Violet is one of my favorite characters, because she's normal expect for her gift. She loves her family, her friends, and her major worry is Jay, her best-friend. She tries to live with her gift the best she can, but she knows she can't ignore it. She's smart, and yes, she make mistakes as any other 16 year old, but I didn't think she was dumb or exaggerated.
And I couldn't help but fall in love with Jay too. He's stubborn and sometimes controlling, but he has a sweet side. It's the perfect boyfriend combination. He's more mature that Violet, and worries about her safety, but he's also a little naughty, always teasing her.
The writing is great, not too fast but not slow. The changes from Violet's pov to the killer's pov were interesting, because I knew what each of them were thinking.
I wasn't expecting so much mystery but was very surprised to find a lot. I never figured out who the killer was (until the end, of course) and there were surprises. I loved this, not knowing what was going to happen and always feeling at the edge.
And it was such a good thing, at least for me, that there weren't details about the murders. Just the kidnapings. It made it lighter and easier to read.
Overall, I couldn't find anything wrong with The Body Finder. I love it, it's original and I won't forget about the characters. I can't wait to read the next book, Desires of the Dead.
P.S.: Don't trust strangers!
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