The List of Suspicious Things (2024) is a novel by Jennie Godfrey. Blending mystery and historical fiction, the story follows 12-year-old Miv, who lives in a Yorkshire town gripped by fear during the Yorkshire Ripper’s murders in the late 1970s. When Miv creates a list of “suspicious things” to make sense of the danger around her, she and her friend Sharon begin investigating their community, uncovering unsettling truths about the adult world. The novel explores The Impact of Violence on Innocence and Coming of Age, Otherness as a Container for Collective Fear, and The Value of Community and the Importance of Challenging Injustice.

This study guide uses the Penguin 2024 eBook edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual violence, rape, graphic violence, racism, illness & death; suicidal ideation, death by suicide, mental illness, anti-immigrant bias; child abuse, child death; child sexual abuse; religious discrimination, substance dependency; sexism, cursing; anti-gay bias; and substance use.

Plot Summary

In 1979, in a struggling West Yorkshire town, 12-year-old Miv lives in a tense, joyless home. Her mother, Marian, has been mute for two years following an unspecified mental health episode. Her father, Austin, is exhausted and distracted, and her Aunty Jean, who moved in to help the family, disapproves of almost everything. Aunty Jean blames “foreigners,” the election of the first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, and the serial killer dubbed “the Yorkshire Ripper” for Yorkshire’s decline. Miv’s one refuge is her best friend Sharon, a kind and pretty girl from a more conventional household. Miv is horrified when Austin and Aunty Jean discuss moving away from Yorkshire, vowing to catch the Ripper to avert this disaster.

During the school holidays, Miv and Sharon buy a notebook and make a list of the suspicious things they observe in their neighborhood. Their early suspicion falls on Omar Bashir, the Pakistani owner of the corner shop, because of his recent arrival in the area, his Ford Corsair, and eyewitness descriptions of the Ripper as “swarthy.” As they get to know the recently widowed Omar and become friends with his son, Ishtiaq, Miv and Sharon rule him out as a suspect. They also become aware of the racism the Bashirs face, as Omar’s shop becomes a target for escalating National Front harassment, culminating in an arson attack that destroys it and drives the family temporarily back to Bradford.

The girls’ suspicions turn to their teacher, Mr. Ware, and the eerie, derelict Healy Mill. They learn the mill’s history of child labor and its reputed haunting by John Harris, a 12-year-old worker who died during a macabre game. When bullies Richard Collier and Neil Callahan nearly drown a vulnerable classmate, Mr. Ware comes to the rescue. Miv and Sharon discover that Mr. Ware’s wife has left him for another man and cross him off the list. Miv develops a crush on Mr. Ware’s son, Paul.

Miv identifies Howden’s Scrapyard as a suspicious location. She and Sharon note that a man is living in a Portakabin in the yard and believe they may have caught the killer. However, the suspect turns out to be an elderly man, Arthur, who is grieving the death of his wife. The girls visit Arthur regularly and help him move back to the house he shared with his wife. They realize his daughter is their favorite librarian, Helen Andrews.

The police broadcast a recording of a voice they believe to be the Yorkshire Ripper’s. The man has a Tyneside accent, and Miv suspects a Geordie truck driver, Jim Jameson, who works with her father. Jim, who has split from his wife and is living in his truck, is attacked by some of his coworkers after the police question him several times. Jim is eventually cleared of involvement in the case and moves in with Arthur.

Miv notices Sharon is outgrowing activities she still enjoys. Sharon begins dating Ishtiaq, and Miv, hurt and jealous, feels increasingly left behind. One day, she hears Aunty Jean and her father arguing. Aunty Jean accuses Austin of neglecting his family and criticizes his behavior.

Miv and Sharon visit Chapeltown, a notorious district of Leeds, where the Ripper has murdered several women. When two men accost them, the girls are rescued by a sex worker named Maggie, who gets a police officer to drive them home.

An investigation into the vicar, Mr. Spencer, reveals he has an alcohol dependency, but he is not the Ripper. Next, Miv fixates on Brian Lockwood, a socially isolated young man who is being exploited and bullied by Richard Collier and his friends. When Miv finds a petrol-soaked shirt in Brian’s shed, she secretly hands it to the police. Soon after, Brian dies by suicide—an event that triggers Miv’s traumatic memories of her mother’s own suicide attempt just before she fell silent. Sharon, shaken, refuses to continue the “list,” arguing they have been treating real suffering like a game.

Miv’s focus turns to a church volunteer, “Uncle Raymond,” who shows inappropriate interest in young choir girls. She tries to set a trap, but the scheme goes awry, enabling Raymond to abduct nine-year-old Alison, whom he harms. Though Uncle Raymond is arrested, Miv feels responsible.

At home, Miv notices her father’s secretive phone calls and absences and adds him to the list. Miv follows her father and discovers he has been having an affair with Sharon’s mother, Ruby. Distraught, Miv decides to confide in Helen Andrews. Outside the Andrews’ flat, Miv hears Helen being assaulted by her husband, Gary, and calls emergency services. Gary is charged with domestic violence and setting fire to Omar’s shop.

The last item on Miv’s list is Healy Mill. She goes there alone, hoping to conclude the investigation. Inside, she finds evidence tying the mill to Richard Collier and his National Front activities. Paul Ware, Sharon, and Ishtiaq arrive, having guessed Miv’s likely location. Richard and Neil appear, too, and on the rooftop, Richard corners Sharon, trying to grab her. In the confrontation, Sharon falls to her death. In the aftermath, Miv’s mother, Marian, returns to herself, comforting Miv in her grief.

In the months that follow, the Ripper kills again, but Miv is absorbed in mourning Sharon. She keeps the list alive in a new way, revisiting its locations with Paul and Ishtiaq, and starts a second notebook listing the qualities she admired in Sharon and wants to emulate.

A year later, the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, is finally caught by police in a routine traffic stop. Austin is stunned to realize he worked with Sutcliffe. With the killer named, Marian tells Miv the truth about her illness: She was attacked and raped while walking home from bingo. Afterward, she stayed silent out of shame, having watched the media judge the Ripper’s victims, several of whom were sex workers. Marian now understands that the attack was not her fault.

In the wake of the tragedy, the community supports one another. Omar and Helen become a couple. Meanwhile, Miv, Ishtiaq, Paul, Arthur, Jim, Helen, Mr. Ware, and Brian Lockwood’s mother, Valerie, meet monthly to remember those they miss. Miv finally closes the notebook of suspicious things.