The List of Suspicious Things
by Jennie Godfrey
My Review
What an engaging read. Reminded me quite a lot of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon. Told from a youngsters point of view. Miv, the main protagonist, captured my heart. Brought back so many memories of the seventies when I was somewhat older than she is in the book.
Miv’s Mum is ill, locked away in her own mind she is present but never speaks, her dad goes off to work or increasingly, to the pub and is caring but distant. Aunty Jean who lives with them is capable but unused to children and her brusque manner leaves Miv craving affection. But Miv feels unnoticed by most and unloved by everyone.
The only constant in her life is her one and only friend Sharon, who is everything Miv wishes she was.
But everything is about to change, Miv discovers her Dad is planning for them to move away, fuellled mainly, she intuits, by the possible proximity of the Yorkshire ripper. She is distraught for this will mean she loses her best friend.
Everything is played out against news bulletins of the rippers crimes. Miv decides to investigate, find and unveil the killer, and this is how the list of suspicious things comes into play. Aided by Sharon the girls set in motion a series of events leading to an unforeseen outcome. Peopled by wonderful characters this is mainly a book about friendship, tragedy and misunderstandings. its wonderful and I loved it.
The blurb
‘What if we decided to try and find him?’
‘What on earth are you on about?’ she said. ‘How are we going to catch the Yorkshire Ripper, when the police haven’t even managed to?’
I sighed. Her questioning my ideas was a recent and unwelcome element to our friendship. But it was a valid point. How would we catch him? We needed some sort of plan, a way of gathering clues and putting them into order.
I thought about what the policeman had said about structure, and then about Aunty Jean and her notebook, and the idea I had hardened like toffee. I knew exactly what we needed to do.
‘We’ll make a list,’ I said. ‘A list of the people and things we see that are suspicious.
And then . . . And then we’ll investigate them.’
The List of Suspicious Things is a tender and moving coming of age story about family, friendship and community. Sometimes the strongest connections are found in the most unlikely of places.
