The Lovely Bones by Alic Seabold.
A literary sensation when it was published in 2002, The Lovely Bones was Alice Seabold's first novel. Beggining with the rape and murder of Susie Salmon, the teenage girl narrates the book, the novel then focuses on police attempts to catch the murderer and the after-effects of Susie's death on her parents, brother, sister and the wider community.