‘I had no interest in turning my gaze to my family. I was more interested in the strangeness of others.’
Yorkshire, 1979. Margaret Thatcher has just been elected and the news channels are brimming with news about the Yorkshire Ripper, both his crimes and the hunt for him. Meanwhile, two best friends are navigating life growing up in a small village, full of neighbours they know, neighbours they don’t and a whole heap of secrets waiting to be discovered…
What’s it about?
Miv’s mum isn’t talking and life at home is hard, but Miv’s best friend, Sharon, is a lifeline, so when her dad starts talking about moving Down South, Miv won’t countenance it; she won’t leave Sharon.
Believing that her dad’s suggestion stems from the murders happening locally, Miv decides to solve the problem by catching the murderer. How? Simple. By compiling a list of strange things, places and people and investigating these.
As Miv and Sharon investigate, the secrets unearthed create ripples in their community, but those ripples turn into seismic waves when the girls discover secrets lurking closer to home…
What’s it like?
Moving. Cleverly constructed. A real insight into life in a particular place and time. Godfrey incorporates a range of characters from a small community, presenting them from Miv’s point of view, then often slipping into their own thoughts in a subsequent chapter to illuminate the details of their life that Miv cannot or does not yet understand. I liked this method of developing the cast and it ensured that the number of characters always felt manageable.
Final thoughts
This is a moving story of friendship and an effective coming of age tale that has left me with mixed feelings. I enjoyed reading this as Godfrey gradually introduced a whole cast of villagers whose lives intersect with and impact on each other, most of whom have their own secrets which must come to the fore to be addressed.
I finished reading the book with a feeling that, a niggle or two about the ending aside, I had really enjoyed reading it, watching each investigation reach its climax, but as I skimmed through the pages to refresh my memory, I was struck afresh by Miv’s culpability. Sharon reaches a point where she refuses to engage with the destructive list, but Miv persists, despite the growing consequences. It is true that her observations and interventions sometimes have no impact or even a positive impact, but there are also terrible errors that she will have to live with and a surprising outcome for one character that doesn’t quite ring true.
Nonetheless, I did really enjoy this; I just wanted to tell Miv to stop!
