The List of Suspicious Things

The reading god blessed me with this recommendation - on the side of a bus. Publicity pays!

Being a canny Yorkshire lass, I rarely fork out full price for a book, and doing so on release day is never a good idea, but I did both for Suspicious Things and I'm so glad I did! Jennie Godfrey's debut novel, based on her own childhood in Dewsbury during the dark days of Thatcher and Peter Sutcliffe, is an absolute gem. Narrator Miv (short for Mavis, I finally discovered) is a Yorkshire version of Scout Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird, viewing the poverty, prejudice, racism and misogyny of the late 1970s through a young girl's eyes.

Miv's life is thrown into chaos when her mother falls into a deep depression. Unable to make sense of her own show more feelings, she turns her loneliness and frustration outwards, determined to catch the 'Ripper' before he can kill again. She and best friend Sharon draw up a list of suspicious people and places in their small Yorkshire town, presumably based on the author's own birthplace of Dewsbury, and set out to investigate potential suspects and witnesses - Asian shopkeepers, lonely old men, angry teachers, tipsy vicars, battered wives, vulnerable neighbours. They are mature enough to realise that most of the people they encounter are not in fact suspicious but 'trying to live their lives', yet Miv's naivete also causes her to miss a lot of subtle clues and make harmful accusations. She makes friends with shop owner Omar and his son, strikes up an unlikely alliance with a widowed rag and bone man, and comes to the rescue of a woman being abused by her husband, but also puts herself and her friends in danger and jumps to conclusions about strangers' lives.

I was captivated by the characters and story, which also reminded me a little of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, and couldn't stop reading. Although I was born in 1980, I also recognised so many of the Yorkshire traits and traditions of textile towns like Dewsbury and also Bradford, where I'm from. The bluntly spoken but loyal and loving locals are also wonderfully familiar and endearing, particularly Aunt Jean. Like Scout, Miv does grow as a character, jolted out of childhood by witnessing the challenges and cruelty of the adult world around her. I found her initial ignorance and interference hard to justify, but her growing emotional awareness of the impact her words and actions have on others eventually makes her a sympathetic and well-rounded young woman. And the final chapters broke my heart!

There is also a genuine respect for the real victims and survivors of Peter Sutcliffe behind the story. Barbara Leach, who was murdered in a part of Bradford that I pass every day on my way to work, is mentioned, and the book ends with the (inadvertent) capture of the killer in 1981, followed by a list of the victims' names in the afterword. What begins as a childish pursuit for Miv also reveals the danger faced by women on a daily basis at the time, and the impotency of the police to apprehend such a vicious serial killer - a twelve year old amateur detective might have had more luck!

There are a few niggles - the easy relationships in notoriously small minded communities, Miv's mother and her backstory, the tacked on paedophile subplot, how everything is neatly wrapped up - but I'm giving a full five stars for the best and most relatable read of the year so far! show less

This was one of those special books that I will be telling everyone to read. This is Miv’s story, although the novel is written from various characters’ points of view. The short chapters as well as the suspenseful plot kept me turning the pages and even though I was anxious for the resolution, I enjoyed the story so much I didn’t want it to end.

Miv and Sharon are best friends on the cusp of their teen years, and living in the small town of Yorkshire reveals more secrets than the girls are prepared for once they decide to solve the mystery of a serial killer’s identity.

Taking place in 1980, this is a redemptive story of lost innocence, evolving friendships, community, and the power of human connection.

How to do justice to The List of Suspicious Things with a review ? It's difficult, but this book had all the elements that kept me spellbound. A bit of mystery, a bit of danger, a large cast of fascinating characters, great atmosphere , a plot that moved along nicely and just plain charm. It's set in Bishopsfield, Yorkshire, against the backdrop of Maggie Thatcher's government , and the very real threat of the Yorkshire Ripper.

Miv is just twelve years old, and is trying to deal with her mum's mental illness, which has caused her mom to stop speaking , and to withdraw from her dad and the world. Pushy Aunty Jean has moved in to help the family. Miv convinces her less than enthusiastic friend Sharon to help her draw up a list of show more suspicious things and people that they hope will them track down the Yorkshire Ripper. This takes them on some dangerous escapades, but much more so, they discover many uncomfortable secrets about friends, family and their nieghbourhood. There is a wonderful bunch of characters, from Omar, a man of Pakistani descent, who is trying to run a corner store despite the racism, to Mrs. Andrews, the librarian who tries to hide her bruises and many others who struggle with alcoholism ,diivorce , and pedophilia , among other things.

Despite this sounding like a dark read, and at times it is , as author Elizabeth Day blurbed , " to read this is to feel a little better about life". A captivating read, that I loved.

Highly recommended. show less

IN A NUTSHELL
'The List of Suspicious Things' was a joy to read, even though the topics it covered are unpleasant. It felt honest. It portrayed people that I recognise: the speech patterns, the things not said, looks exchanged, and the attitudes taken for granted.
It could easily have been a 'Look how bad we were back then', but instead it's infused with a love of time, place and people that says 'We weren't perfect, but we were mostly doing our best.'

’The List Of Suspicious Things‘ was one of my favourite books of 2024. I'm reviewing it now, nearly two years after I finished it, because I've just bought Jennie Godfrey's second novel 'The Barbecue At No.9', a story set in the twelve hours of the LIveAId concert in 1985 , which was show more published today.

Why am I so late with this review? Well, sometimes it's the books that I enjoy most that I find hardest to review. This one was packed with so many good things, was so well-written and so wonderfully turned into an audiobook that I was struggling to say anthing beyond "That was unbelievably good".

'The List of Suspicious Things' has stuck with me through the past two years as an example of how good a novel can be when it tries to capture life as it's lived.

The odd thing is that I almost didn't buy the book when it came out. It was a debut novel that seemed to be about a teenage girl’s self-appointed quest to find the Yorkshire Ripper. I was worried it might be gory or voyeuristic, but I kept hearing good things about it, so I downloaded the audiobook and settled in for eleven hours of first-class listening.

It turned out that 'The List of Suspicious Things’ was really about what it was like to be a teenage girl in Yorkshire in the 1970s. It was a joy to read, even though the topics it covered (racism, violence against women, bullying) were often unpleasant. It felt honest. It portrayed people that I recognised through their speech patterns, the things not said, looks exchanged, and the attitudes that we used to take for granted back then.

It was also a nuanced depiction of how friendships develop between teenage girls and of how friendships and small acts of kindness can sustain hope.

One of the strengths of the book is that the story is told from many perspectives, and each character has a distinctive voice and way of seeing the world. One of the strengths of the audiobook was that it used five narrators to bring the characters to life. It's an exceptional audiobook. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.

https://soundcloud.com/penguin-books/the-list-of-suspicious-things-by-jennie-god...

Becuase it's set in 1979, 'The List of Suspicious Things' is classified as Historical Fiction. That's not how it seems to me. I was studying in Yorkshire back then, on the cusp of graduation. To me, this time and place aren't history, they're memory.

I went into the book hoping to be reminded of how things were in 1979, or, at least, how they appeared to someone a few years younger than me, to whom Yorkshire was home and not a place that they were relatively newly arrived at.

Although it was forty-six years ago, my memory of my hatred of Thatcher and her war on the North is still strong. I will never forgive her and her party for the destruction they wrought. My memory of the Yorkshire Ripper is less clear, perhaps because he wasn’t in my city and I didn’t know the people who lived in Peter Sutcliffe’s shadow. I do remember that it reinforced my dislike for the Yorkshire police.

One of the things that pulled me to ‘The List Of Suspicious Things‘ was that Jennie Godfrey excavated her past to write the book, rather than basing it on research of events that hadn’t touched her life. If you’d like to know more about that, click on thr link below to go to Penguin’s article on the story behind the book.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/discover/articles/interview-jennie-godfrey-author-list... show less

The List of Suspicious Things is the big debut of 2024 and a book set in late 70s Yorkshire was always going to be a must-read for me. Miv is the star of the show, a soon to be teenage girl with a difficult home life who takes it upon herself to try and catch the Yorkshire Ripper. If she can do that then maybe her family won't have to leave Yorkshire and she won't have to leave behind her best friend, Sharon. The two girls, Miv extremely enthusiastic and Sharon not always quite so, set about investigating the people and places on their ever-growing List of Suspicious Things.

It's only a few months since I watched a TV show that focused quite heavily on the victims of Peter Sutcliffe and so they were on my mind as I started reading. show more However, I was soon drawn completely and utterly into Miv's story, which is primarily about childhood, friendship and growing up, with all the ups and downs that life throws at you.

Miv is such a plucky character, inquisitive and fiercely loyal to her friends, and I loved her narrative, even when I could see that she was about to make a dubious decision. There are also chapters from other characters' viewpoints and this is a book that is made up of richly-drawn creations, from different backgrounds and cultures. I grew to love them all, with a few notable exceptions.

The List of Suspicious Things is an evocative and atmospheric read, transporting me to a time when you had to ring your friends on their house phone and their parents would answer, when there was nothing to do but while away the days having adventures, when the corner shop was the hub of everything. It's full of spirit and warmth, it made me smile and it brought a tear to my eye. It's a fabulous nostalgic and tender book. show less

It's 1979 in a small Yorkshire town. To avoid moving down south with her family, Miv and her best friend Sharon compile a list of all the suspicious things in their neighbourhood in the hope to catch the Yorkshire Ripper.

It's difficult to believe that The List of Suspicious Things is the author's debut novel – she captures Miv's voice and innocence perfectly, and effortlessly recreates the atmosphere of a small 70s town in the north of England. The list opens the girls' eyes to secrets close at home – Who set Mr Bashir's shop on fire? Why does the librarian have bruises and mood changes? Is anything hidden at the derelict mill at the edge of town? – and reveals darkness amid middle-class respectability. But there is also enormous show more light and warmth in the form of the shopkeeper Mr Bashir and the girls' close friendship; as a result, the unexpected turn of events towards the end of the book is even more shocking.

Jennie Godfrey is clearly a name to watch and I'll be interested to see what she comes up with next. show less

I can remember the time when this book is set - the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper. I was about thirteen years old and used to lie next to the vent for the hot air central heating and listen to the news every night with the ongoing search and the slight feeling of tension as I understood that it wasn't safe to be outside after dark. That was really the first time that my childhood started to fade at the edges, and much like Miv in the book, my time of roaming free playing with a group of friends in woodlands, along disused railway lines and up in the back fields started to draw to an end.

This is the backdrop to Miv's story, one where she believes that if she catches or identifies the Ripper she will prevent her father from moving house show more and she can keep hold of her hard won friends. But this leads to misunderstandings about men and eveyone she and her best friend Sharon look at they find something suspicious - they don't come from round here, they have brown skin, they behave differently and he has dark hair, he's a Geordie.

Sharon is more 'advanced' than Miv and understands the world and people's motivations and it is she that draws attention to injustice, racism, violence and all the other secrets that families keep. Miv is niave and collects the information but is unable to make full use of it. We get everything from men 'tickling' girls who don't like it to a drunk vicar and adults who never fully explain things to children. And so the main thrust of this story is a coming-of-age as Miv starts to understand the world and times she lives in.

The balance between the coming-of-age and living in a time before Peter Sutcliffe is caught is well held and Godfrey never veers too far one way or the other. Kerplunk and Hollie Hobby dolls along with anaglypta wall paper and snickets and abandonned mills convey the era and I can almost see the colours of orange and brown and the swirly carpets. But what I could also feel was the tension that lay behind the story of not knowing who this killer was and the way it made everyone consider others differently. And the shock when he was caught. People had known him as a colleague and neighbour the whole time but I doubt that closeness to him offered any relief when he was identified. show less