The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting (
ISFDB) is the 1st novel in her eponymous series of YA paranormal urban fantasy mystery/crime with strong f/m romantic suspense elements starring a teenaged heroine with the unusual secret ability to sense the dead bodies of people and animals who have been killed, this installment setting her up as a future crimefighter as she decides to become more pro-active in using said ability when a serial killer pops up in her town, as she attempts to catch them with the help of her best friend who has a crush on her, juggling their potential developing romance while trying not to become the killer's next victim, as you do, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher HarperCollins.
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Description
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.