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THE LIST OF SUSPICIOUS THINGS
Jennie Godfrey
Hutchinson Heinemann
February 15th, 2024
464 Pages
Goodreads | Amazon
I saw this book all over Twitter for the last nine months, Jennie Godfrey has a debut hit on her hands for good reason. A coming-of-age mystery set against the backdrop of the 80s while the Yorkshire Ripper does his bad deeds The List of Suspicious Things captures the essence and time and place brilliantly. Godfrey’s characters are wonderful and I felt something for every one of them, I either loved them or loved to hate them.
Our spunky, pre-teen protagonist, Miv deals with a lot of issues in her life and community, there are of course the murders but there is also depression, suicide, racism and domestic abuse to name but a few. Miv has to deal with these issues at home, school and even during her playtime. To give herself a sense of control over what is happening in her life she decides to make a list and investigate The Ripper herself with her best friend Sharon.
Godfrey is realistic in her writing and sensitive to the issues she writes about and I loved the friendship between the kids in this story not to mention first loves. It was so endearing and the book also showed how The Ripper and all the other things in their family lives gave them each a loss of their innocence. Wonderfully done and so different from the usual mysteries out there and the ending was simply shocking.
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