The Body Finder by Derting

This novel is a great romantic suspense story which combines the teenage drama of falling in love with the suspense of finding a serial killer.

Violet has a unique ability to sense bodies of people and animals that have been killed. She senses the "echo" that the body projects, whether it is a sound, sight, taste, or smell. In addition to the echo, the body leaves an similar "imprint" on the killer. She can then connect the imprint the killer wears to the echo she senses on the body, even though she's the only one who experiences the phenomenon. Luckily the Chief of Police is her uncle and trusts her ability. For the most part, though, she just finds animals. All of that changes, though, when she finds a body in the water, the first body of a man kidnapping girls and killing them. When the next girl goes missing, Violet thinks that she can use her ability to not only find the missing girl's presumably dead body, but also catch the killer. In the meantime, Violet has noticed that her best friend Jay is way more attractive than he was before the school year began, and she's not the only one who has noticed. Now she has to ignore the jealousy she feels towards the females swooning around him and figure out how to keep her feelings in check so that she doesn't ruin their friendship.

I really enjoyed this novel. I thought that it had an even mix of dealing with the hunt for the killer and typical teenage love drama. The novel also includes a few chapters from the killer's point of view which is a nice touch. While I'm not a fan of "paranormal," Violet's ability was really interesting, especially how it wasn't limited to humans and she would sense it with animals. This novel had a nice flow to it and really held my attention - the climax leaves just enough out to have you guessing what's going to happen in the last chapter. It was a great book, although the romantic aspect of it might dissuade boys from reading it.
MMK