This debut novel by Jennie Godfrey was inspired by her childhood in Yorkshire in the 1970s when a murderer stalking women came to be known as the Yorkshire Ripper. Godfrey’s father had actually been an acquaintance of the man later arrested for the murders. In The List of Suspicious Things, main character Miv is a 12-year-old Yorkshire girl who decides that she is going to conduct her own investigation into the identity of the Ripper. Through Miv, her family, friends and neighbors, Godfrey reveals to her readers the everyday lives and concerns of working class folk in Thatcher’s Great Britain. Economic uncertainty, growing nationalism, and racism are part of the picture, but so are friendships, family secrets, and the bonds of community.
Miv lives with her parents and Aunty Jean in a working class section of Yorkshire. Thatcher has just become PM, and lots of people including Aunty Jean are skeptical about a woman’s ability to lead, not to mention her conservative politics. Through Miv’s point of view and through several other narrators, we see a neighborhood where everyone knows one another and can be pretty nosy and gossipy, but we also know there are secrets and things that aren’t polite to talk about. One of those secrets/impolite topics is Miv’s mother. She doesn’t speak, keeps to her room and is clearly dealing with some sort of mental health issue, but this is a recent development. She used to be a lively, charming woman, full of song and love for Miv. Aunty Jean started living with the family to help raise Miv and deal with the mom so that dad Austin could focus on work. Miv’s best friend is Sharon, a very pretty girl who lives in a better part of town and who is sweet, generous and highly empathetic. Miv, known for being quiet, awkward and maybe a bit odd, treasures her friendship with Sharon. When Miv decides that she wants to investigate the Ripper, Sharon is her ally. Miv has a notebook in which she starts making lists of suspicious people and activities because the police have emphasized that the Ripper could be someone who seems ordinary, someone you know. Through Miv and Sharon’s investigations, the reader gets to know other people in the neighborhood: Omar and his son Ishtiaq — a classmate of the girls — run the local corner shop and face acts of racism and violence due to their Asian/Muslim roots; the sweet librarian Mrs. Anderson; Arthur the rag man and Jim the truck driver; Valerie, whose adult son Brian is a quiet and sometimes unnerving presence on the street; and the class bullies Richard and Neil as well as teacher Mr. Ware and his family.
Godfrey introduces these characters in a natural way, slowly teasing out information regarding their backgrounds and relationships to one another. What we the reader learn early on is that while Sharon can often figure out some secrets that people have and that she is aware of and angered by injustices toward weaker members of the community, Miv is more naive. She is compassionate but sometimes has to have things pointed out to her. Miv, to her credit, is a quick learner and she tries to be more like Sharon. The friendship between these two girls is the heart of the novel, and when it appears that circumstances might force them apart, we share Miv’s fear and sadness.
While the girls’ investigations focus on the Ripper, the real revelations concern the secrets of members of the community and their own families. This book is full of heartache, and it could be triggering for some. Abuse of women, children and minorities predominates in this story and Godfrey does not shy away from describing the violence that was happening at the time and that we still see today.
This is a really beautiful story and very well told, but there is quite a lot of darkness and sadness in it so take the trigger warning to heart.
