The List of Suspicious Things Summary: A 1979 Mystery
Introduction
In May 1979, a working-class town in West Yorkshire is adjusting to a new prime minister and living under the shadow of an unknown killer.
Twelve-year-old Miv Senior overhears something she was never meant to hear: her family may be leaving Yorkshire.
Jennie Godfrey’s novel The List of Suspicious Things follows Miv and her best friend Sharon as they turn a school project into a private investigation of their neighbours.
What they find is not the Yorkshire Ripper, but the quiet damage adults keep hidden behind closed doors.
TL;DR: The Quick Summary
- Setting: A West Yorkshire industrial town between May 1979 and January 1981.
- Premise: Two twelve-year-olds compile a notebook of “suspicious things” and investigate local people, hoping to catch the Yorkshire Ripper so Miv’s family won’t move away.
- Structure: Twelve numbered suspect entries, each one exposing a real adult secret rather than a serial killer.
- Core themes: Fear, prejudice, domestic trauma, grief, and the loss of innocence.
- Outcome: The investigation ends in tragedy, arrest, and a slow family reconciliation once Peter Sutcliffe is caught.
Who Will Enjoy This Book? Readers of historical fiction, coming-of-age stories, and slow-burn small-town mysteries set in late twentieth-century Britain.
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Book Snapshot
- Genre & Subgenre: Historical Fiction / Coming-of-Age Mystery / Social Drama
- Core Narrative Tropes: Amateur child detectives, a real serial killer as background force, small-town secrets
- Tone & Atmosphere: Bleak and oppressive, softened by childhood nostalgia and Yorkshire humour
- Primary Conflict: Miv’s fear of losing her family and friend, set against the Ripper terror and local prejudice
- Pacing Style: Episodic during the investigation, accelerating at Healy Mill, then reflective
- Book Structure: Three parts — The Wish (3 chapters), The Suspicious Things (50 chapters), The Aftermath (3 chapters)
- POV: First-person Miv, with short third-person chapters from adult perspectives
- Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark, December 30, 2025
- Pages: 416
- ISBN-10: 1464249059 Â |Â ISBN-13: 978-1464249051
Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Miv (Mavis) Senior | Twelve-year-old narrator who creates the List of Suspicious Things |
| Sharon Parker | Miv’s best friend and investigative partner |
| Ishtiaq Bashir | Classmate of Miv and Sharon who faces racial bullying at school |
| Omar Bashir | Widowed shopkeeper and Ishtiaq’s father |
| Austin Senior | Miv’s father, a delivery depot supervisor |
| Marian Senior | Miv’s mother, mute and withdrawn after a breakdown |
| Aunty Jean | Austin’s sister, who moves in to run the household |
| Ruby Parker | Sharon’s mother, a community fundraiser |
| Malcolm Parker | Sharon’s father, often away for work |
| Helen Andrews | Local librarian and Arthur’s daughter |
| Gary Andrews | Helen’s husband |
| Arthur | Rag-and-bone man who travels with his horse Mungo |
| Jim Jameson | Geordie lorry driver at Austin’s depot |
| Mike Ware (Mr. Ware) | Schoolteacher going through a divorce |
| Hazel Ware | Mr. Ware’s ex-wife |
| Paul Ware | Mike and Hazel’s teenage son |
| Reece Carlton | School bully who leads harassment against Ishtiaq and Sharon |
| Neil Callaghan | Reece’s sidekick |
| Brian Lockwood | Reclusive twenty-three-year-old known as “the man in the overalls” |
| Valerie Lockwood | Brian’s mother, who works at the local biscuit factory |
| Peter Spencer | Local vicar |
| Mrs. Spencer | The vicar’s wife |
| “Uncle” Raymond | Church choir assistant |
| DS Guy Lister | Police detective working the Ripper case |
| Mags | Prostitute in Chapeltown, Leeds |
| Stephen Crowther | Classmate rescued from near-drowning during a swimming lesson |
The List of Suspicious Things Summary: The Full Story
Spoilers ahead. This section covers the plot, including the ending.
Miv Senior lives in a quiet West Yorkshire town where her mother, Marian, has not spoken for two years. Her father, Austin, works long hours and often leaves the house at night.
Her Aunty Jean has moved in to run the home, keeping order through carefully written lists. When Miv overhears that the family might move away, she fears losing Sharon above all else.
On a school trip to Old Mother Shipton’s Petrifying Well, Miv throws a penny into the water and wishes to catch the Yorkshire Ripper. Stopping the murders, she reasons, will keep her family in Yorkshire.
Backed by police calls for “structure and rigour”, Miv proposes a notebook titled The List of Suspicious Things. Sharon agrees, and the girls spend their pocket money on a spiral pad.
Their first entry is Omar Bashir, the widowed shopkeeper, suspected only because of his Ford Corsair and his dark hair. Spending time in his shop, the girls instead meet his shy son Ishtiaq and witness the racism the family faces daily.
Entry two is their short-tempered teacher Mr. Ware, whose divorce from Hazel is quietly falling apart. Entries three and four cover derelict mills and Howden’s Scrapyard, where they find Arthur, the grieving rag-and-bone man, sleeping in a Portakabin.
Next they suspect Jim Jameson, a Geordie lorry driver, because his accent resembles the “Wearside Jack” hoax tapes. Jim is beaten by colleagues before police clear him on boot size.
The librarian Helen Andrews becomes entry six after the girls notice bruises and mood swings. The truth is domestic violence at the hands of her husband, Gary.
Following newspaper reports, Miv and Sharon travel to Chapeltown in Leeds, where a local woman named Mags protects them from two men. DS Guy Lister brings them home, and Miv spots the vicar, Mr. Spencer, leaving an adult shop.
Mr. Spencer becomes entry eight; the girls later find him passed out drunk in a church storeroom. Entry nine is Brian Lockwood, a reclusive young man in oily overalls who lingers near Omar’s shop.
After Omar’s shop is destroyed by arson, Miv steals an oily rag from Brian’s shed and gives it to DS Lister. Questioned by police, Brian hangs himself in the woods, and a devastated Sharon abandons the list.
Entry ten concerns “Uncle” Raymond, a choir assistant who touches young girls inappropriately. Miv tells adults, and Raymond is arrested after assaulting a girl named Alison.
Entry eleven turns on Austin himself. Miv overhears him admitting he lied to police about his whereabouts, then trails him at night and learns he is having an affair with Sharon’s mother, Ruby Parker.
To finish the list, Miv goes alone to Healy Mill on a snowy afternoon. There she finds a hidden bag holding stolen metal piping and National Front leaflets.
Sharon, Ishtiaq, and Paul Ware follow her to the mill. Reece Carlton and Neil Callaghan arrive with a heavy metal pipe, and Reece shoves Ishtiaq and swings at Sharon.
Stepping back, Sharon falls from the unbarricaded roof. She dies from her injuries despite the others reaching her side.
Reece is arrested and charged with manslaughter. Gary Andrews is also arrested, revealed to have burned down Omar’s shop out of jealousy after Miv alerted Arthur that Gary was heading to harm Helen.
Marian finally breaks her silence to comfort Miv, revealing a past assault she had carried in shame. Austin ends the affair, and the family chooses to stay in Yorkshire.
In January 1981, police arrest Peter Sutcliffe at a traffic stop in Sheffield. Miv closes the List of Suspicious Things and starts a new notebook — a list of wonderful things, dedicated to Sharon.
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What Drives the Story
| Theme | How the Book Presents It |
|---|---|
| Fear and the terror of the unknown | The Ripper’s murders impose curfews, police warnings, and suspicion on daily life. Women and girls change how and when they go outside. |
| Coming of age and lost innocence | Miv moves from detective games to real consequences, including Brian Lockwood’s suicide and Sharon’s death. She confronts adult moral complexity and mortality. |
| Prejudice and “othering” | Omar and Ishtiaq Bashir face graffiti, hostility, and arson. Geordie lorry driver Jim Jameson is beaten by colleagues over his accent. |
| Hidden domestic trauma | Helen Andrews conceals abuse by her husband Gary. Austin conducts a secret affair with Ruby Parker, and Marian’s silence stems from an earlier assault. |
| Grief, guilt, and healing | Omar, Arthur, Valerie Lockwood, and Miv each carry a loss. Community members gather informally to share memories and rebuild. |
Quotes from The List of Suspicious Things
“It would be easy to say that it all started with the murders, but actually it began when Margaret Thatcher became prime minister.”
“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.”
“You can’t outrun grief, brother.”
“You have to look at every single bit of information you get in detail, without getting waylaid by emotion or what you think the answer’s going to be. You can’t ignore anything.”
“A man died,” she said, “and we’ll never know the part we played in that.”
“Sometimes grown-ups feel a lot of pain, and they think the way to cure it is to hurt themselves,” he said.
“If we’ve learned owt from t’last few years, it’s to take our joy where we can,” she said.
Books Like The List of Suspicious Things
- The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon — Two young girls investigate a neighbour’s disappearance in 1970s Britain, exposing small-town prejudice along the way.
- My Name Is Leon by Kit de Waal — A 1980s British coming-of-age story about family breakdown, racial identity, and a child’s view of adult failure.
- The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley — A young, observant protagonist applies deduction and list-making to a mystery in a tight-knit community.
- Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan — A quiet historical narrative about one person confronting hidden systemic trauma in a small town.
- A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines — A working-class Yorkshire coming-of-age story set against limited opportunities and harsh adult authority.
- The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley — A child is drawn into the secret adult relationships around him, with lasting consequences.
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Jennie Godfrey: A Yorkshire Voice
Jennie Godfrey is a British novelist from West Yorkshire, and The List of Suspicious Things is her debut novel.
The book draws on the social texture of late-1970s and early-1980s northern England, including the climate of fear created by the Yorkshire Ripper investigation.
