The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

Title: The Body Finder
Author: Kimberly Derting
Pages: 336
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: March 16, 2010
Source: Borrow

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.

The Body Finder is a twisted story filled with solid characters, a new, mysterious concept of the 'echo', and the mystical writing of Kimberly Derting.

The bonus addition of the killer's point of view is simply chilling and I really found the transitions between perspectives really smooth and skillfully placed. Just when things started to go down a notch, Derting adds the killer's POV and makes the book more exciting.

Violet is a complex character that I found easy to relate to, even with her power, because Derting truly has a talent for a teen's narration. Kimberly Derting created a very real high-school atmosphere, similar to my own school's. It felt as though I was walking those hallways with Violet and experiencing many of the emotions that she felt.

In effect, The Body Finder has exceeded all of my expectations and I am aching to read Desires of the Dead, the sequel, coming out 2011. I have no doubt that Kimberly Derting will be an author to watch out for.

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