It’s 1979 and The Yorkshire Ripper is murdering women who he finds alone. The police are hunting for him, but clues are minimal. The town gossips are rampant and women fear walking the streets.
Miv is on the brink of becoming a teenager. She lives in Yorkshire with her mum, dad and her aunty Jean. Her mum is unwell, sitting around staring into space, when not having a stint in hospital. Miv has heard murmurs of them moving from Yorkshire. She couldn’t bear leaving her best friend, Sharon. If she helps catch The Ripper it might mean they stay. So she starts a list of people and the things that are suspicious about them.
As Miv and Sharon add to their list we in hand are introduced to the places and characters who people this book. Through the prism of the girls’ continuing investigation they learn about the people who live around them, opening their eyes into their lives, their problems and life’s pressures. As they see them in a new light secrets beging to also be exposed.
This book is a coming-of age tale, touching on racism, isolation, friendship, family, love, loss, jealousy, bullying and domestic violence. Some serious themes, but don’t let that put you off. It is reminiscent for me of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and even the ‘Famous Five’ at times.
It did slow just after the middle of the book when I yearned for the story to move on, but it wasn’t long before I couldn’t stop reading and burned the midnight oil to read to the end.
The List of Suspicious Things is a very impressive debut.
Reviewed by Rowena Morcom
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennie Godfrey was born and raised in Yorkshire and the novel was partly inspired by her father having worked alongside Peter Sutcliffe, the man eventually charged with the crimes of the Yorkshire Ripper. She is a former HR director of a FTSE100 company who left her career to become a Waterstones bookseller and a writer.
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