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Wednesday 15 December 2010

THE BODY FINDER by Kimberly Derting

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, 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, but now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town 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 in love, Violet is getting closer to discovering a killer...and becoming his prey herself.

This is a YA book that I've been wanting to read for a while, so as soon as I received my review copy, I couldn't wait to read it. And it didn't disappoint, that's for sure.

Violet has a really strange gift, or maybe it's actually a curse. She can feel and see the echo of dead people and animals, as well as read it off the people who actually do the killing. She discovered the body of a young girl when she was only eight, and now gets caught up in the middle of another murder mystery when she finds the body of a dead girl dumped in the nearby lake.

As more girls go missing, it soon becomes obvious that there's a serial killer loose in the small town of Buckley. A horrible man who hunts, takes, and then kills teenage girls, before dumping/burying them where he's sure no one will ever find them. The killer might think he's covering his tracks, but he didn't count on someone with Violet's skills to be on the case.

However, with her personal problems of the heart almost superseding everything else, could she actually be putting herself at risk and calling attention to herself? Well, at least her best friend Jay's always there to help comfort and keep her safe, especially now that the dynamic of their friendship is shifting...

I really enjoyed the mystery of finding out who the deranged killer was, as well as reading the killer's anonymous POV  peppered between Violet's. The tension slowly builds to a heart-pounding crescendo that had me quickly turning every page, eager to read what was next, and ending with an explosive scene that actually had me holding my breath until I got to the end of the book.

The Body Finder was an engrossing and intelligent story about a sixteen-year-old girl with a unique talent she can't help but want to put to good use. She has good intentions, and wants to help, but eventually finds out that sometimes, that can actually work against her.

Oh, and I also particularly liked the friendship between Violet and Jay, and how it goes from something safe and familiar, into a passionate, mutual attraction that messes with both of them.

This one's a total keeper, and I can't wait for the next one in this series...

Check out the book trailer:

The Body Finder, March 2011, ISBN 9780755378951, Headline

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