Review: The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

GoodReads

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 that 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 the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him. 

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping 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

Review

First off I have to do the ultimate bad reader move and judge a book by its cover because they cover is GORGEOUS.  The contrast of the serene blue in the flower and the pure black background.  The bold imagery and the simple elegance of it all. SO PRETTY.  I know a book is more than just a cover but this one deserves a mention and a lustful stroke of the glossy pages.

The book is quite a bold and different concept because it's about a contemporary crime story you'd expect to be a BBC 1 drama but with the added twist that our central character Violet can sense the dead.  The dead and sceptically the killed or violently murdered leave a mark on their surrounding and those responsible to their dead.  Ranging from a visual trail on a person or a sensation that Violet experiences like a taste of a person's favourite food or the sharp sound of the last defining noise the victim hears and these draw Violet like a moth to a flame.  She doesn't want to be faced with this darkness but it's an ability she can't turn off no matter where it may lead.  So when a serial killer targets young girls in Violet's home town and she discovers a body things take a drastic turn away from her usual unearthing of dead birds or pets.

What a wonderfully told story.  I can't tell you how impressed with the way the story was told as well as the story itself.  Having an insight into the mind of a serial killer as well as the person seeking him out.  Both prey and predator have a voice in The Body Finder and it's both disturbing and creepy.  Violet is not the shrinking kind and has learnt to deal with the effects of her 'gift' in her life and tries to have a normal life.  This being a teenage school girl that has a huge crush on a boy; it just so happens that this boy is her best friend Jay.  I LOVE JAY.  He's like the best guy friend ever and even though Violet is struggling to ignore her feelings for him you just want her to say something because he's probably as close to perfect boyfriend material as you're going to get.

You are rooting for Violet all the way on both fronts of her life, the supernatural and teen reality, when you hope that things fall into place but things are never as was has you hope and The Body Finder is no exception.  The path of the teenager heart rarely runs smoothly and the path of a stalkerish serial killer rarely runs right up to the police station with a confession in hand.  The writing is first rate and sets the pulse racing from both fear and giddy delight.  I NEED the 2nd book in my life now.  Not even kidding.

Rating: 9/10

Published by Headline Publishing and is available here and all good book sellers