The Body Finder (review)

When Violet Ambrose was eight years old, she uncovered the body of a murdered young girl in the woods behind her parent's house; now, at sixteen, she makes yet another gruesome discovery at a local lake. To the rest of her small town, this seems like nothing more than an unfortunate coincidence, but Violet knows better—she knows that it is her ability to sense the psychic echoes of murdered souls that leads her to the bodies. As more girls go missing, she realizes that she might be the only one who can stop a serial killer. She is also dealing with the everyday dramas of her junior year, a situation not helped by the fact that she finds herself hopelessly attracted to Jay, her suddenly über-hot best male friend. In her debut work, Derting manages to pack a haunting mystery full of plenty of red herrings and creepy encounters, seamlessly interweaving the classic whodunit story with a steamy romance involving a drop-dead gorgeous knight in shining armor. The book occasionally shifts to provide the killer's perspective, offering a disturbing, albeit compelling, portrayal of evil while creating palpable dramatic tension as Violet's brushes with the murderer become more and more frequent. Though Violet herself is rather nondescript, her relationship with Jay is both sweetly tender and lustfully intense, offering a nice reprieve to the darker aspects of the story. Fans of Lisa McMann's Wake (BCCB 4/08) will find this delectable blend of mystery and romance just to their liking.