Set in Yorkshire in 1979 shortly after the election of Margaret Thatcher, Jennie Godfrey’s novel revolves around a working-class family living in the shadow of a new Conservative government and the Yorkshire Ripper murders. The novel opens with 12-year-old Miv quietly fretting about the stories in the papers of young women being killed and her aunt’s suggestion that life would be better if they moved down south. Appalled at the prospect of leaving her home, Miv hatches a plan. She and her best friend, Sharon, will do what the police have so far failed to do: they will catch the Yorkshire Ripper.
The List of Suspicious Things – the title comes from Miv’s list of the suspicious goings-on in her community – comes with a keen sense of time and place. Miv’s is a world of jam roly-poly, shag pile carpets, The Wombles, children playing outside until dark and husbands and fathers spending their evenings in the pub. It’s also a time when games of “It” at school are replaced by “Ripper chase”, and women avoid going out alone for fear of being the killer’s next victim.
Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt is the voice of Miv, providing a poignant child’s-eye view of events and embodying the confusion and curiosity of life on the brink of adolescence. There are other, more fleeting voices here too, including Mark Noble as Miv’s father, Austin, and Asif Khan as Bashir, the Elton John-loving shopkeeper. It’s no spoiler to reveal that Miv’s sleuthing doesn’t lead her to the Ripper, though there are nonetheless some startling revelations close to home.
Available via Penguin Audio 10hr 51min
Further listening
The Iliad
Homer, Audible Studios, 20hr 23min
Audra McDonald narrates the ancient Greek author’s epic poem, translated by Emily Wilson, set in the final weeks of the Trojan War and depicting a fierce standoff between Agamemnon and Achilles.
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The Suspect
Rob Rinder, Penguin Audio, 8hr 2min
The second book in Rinder’s Adam Green series sees a TV presenter dying on air in front of horrified viewers. Can junior barrister Green find out why? Josh Dylan reads.