Review:: "The List of Suspicious Things," Jennie Godfrey

By Liz Soares

How can a novel in which the Yorkshire Ripper looms be so warm and heartfelt?

Yet The List of Suspicious Things is exactly that.

It is 1980. Twelve-year-old Miv lives in a mill town in Yorkshire. Margaret Thatcher is prime minister. The mills are closing. The economy is bleak. And someone is killing women in her county.

At home, Miv’s mother has suffered a nervous breakdown. Aunty Jean — her father’s brisk, practical sister — runs the household while Austin, Miv’s dad, wonders whether moving away might help his wife recover.

The idea terrifies Miv. How could she leave her best friend, Sharon? In the logic of a determined twelve-year-old, there is only one solution: if they can catch the Ripper, her family won’t have to move.

The girls begin compiling a list of “suspicious” people in their neighborhood. Miv keeps meticulous notes. They start with Omar Bashir, a Pakistani immigrant who runs the corner shop, but soon form a friendship with him and his son, Ishquiel. Their suspicions widen to include Arthur, a lonely widower, and his daughter Helen — a librarian. “Uncle” Raymond from church makes the list, as does one of their teachers. Even Miv’s father is not exempt.

What begins as childish sleuthing slowly becomes something more complicated. The girls uncover secrets. They make unlikely friendships. They also wander into places they shouldn’t — including an abandoned factory — and attract the attention—and anger — of two classmates dabbling in National Front ideology.

Tragedy strikes more than once. But at its heart, this novel is not about the Ripper. It is about girlhood — about friendship, loyalty, prejudice, and a child’s fierce hope that she can somehow set a broken world right. It is about how we are all always learning how the world works.

By the end of the book, the Yorkshire Ripper — Peter Sutcliffe — is arrested during a routine traffic stop. He had murdered thirteen women and attacked seven others. The people of Yorkshire breathe sighs of relief and move on. As does Miv.

She is thirteen by the end of the book. She has endured loss. She has learned hard truths about judging people, about kindness, and about who deserves to be feared. But she has also grown braver and more certain of herself. The reader has rooted for her every step of the way.