Muddy the Water - by Matt Barrows & Jessica Barrows Beebe (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

★ Winner of the Literary Global Book Award for Debut Fiction ★

"This snappy, suspenseful thriller will keep you guessing until the final chapter and will make you wonder-can anyone be a journalist?" - Katie Couric, journalist and author

"Tremendous book. You'll be transfixed." -- Peter King, sportswriter and author

"It grabs you by the collar and won't let go." - Jo Piazza, bestselling author of The Sicilian Inheritance

Description:

A popular fishing captain is murdered on his own trawler and everyone in Haversport, Massachusetts, knows the culprit is a young deckhand named Ben Broome, including Detective Lillian Grimes. But Ben has discovered the perfect hiding place: as a reporter writing for the tiny Coastal Packet, a newspaper down in South Carolina.

When a half-eaten body washes in, it becomes the biggest story in the paper's history and brings cunning, charismatic Ben immediate success. But it also leads Grimes closer to the truth. She soon teams up with hungry rival reporter Florence Park to hunt Ben down before he can charm-or kill-his way to freedom.

Shown from three perspectives, killer, detective, and reporter, Muddy the Water brings readers inside the newsroom of a struggling small newspaper on the bucolic South Carolina coast and speaks to the concept of identity-and whether anyone ever shows his or her true self.

Review Quotes

"A quiet newcomer at a local South Carolina newspaper has a deep, dark secret. This snappy, suspenseful thriller will keep you guessing until the final chapter and will make you wonder-can anyone be a journalist?"-Katie Couric, journalist and author

"There is so much to like-no, love-about Muddy the Water. The story is imaginative, incredibly different from any murder mystery you've read. Matt Barrows and Jessica Barrows Beebe paint vivid scenes with their words, drawing you into a sordid tale with so many twists and turns. I love the characters-particularly the dogged detective and the reporter with so much to hide. Tremendous book. You'll be transfixed. Matt and Jessica, write a sequel please."-Peter King, sportswriter and author

"Jessica Barrows Beebe and Matt Barrows have crafted a well-layered thriller that will grip readers from its haunting opening scene to its chilling final twist. Th e vividly drawn characters, especially the unyielding detective Grimes, provide an emotional depth that elevates the suspense. Readers will enjoy seeing the scenes unfold through the eyes of the villain, which adds the feeling of unpredictability that will keep readers on edge. With its masterful storytelling and pacing, Muddy the Water is impossible to put down until the very last page."-Kathryn Dare, San Francisco Book Review

"Muddy the Water sidled up next to me, promising cozy noir companionship, only to grab me by the lapels with an iron grip. The prose is elegant, the characters are as witty as they are cunning, and the plot twists made me gasp out loud! A chilling and stunning debut."-Elisa Zuritsky, writer of Sex and the City (1998) and And Just Like That

"Here's a headline for you: Muddy the Water is a page-turner full of twists worthy of an A1 lead story. Barrows and Beebe have penned a sly and spirited thriller that turns gumshoe journalist tropes upside down and peeks under the hood of small-town newspaper life."-Janelle Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things and I'll Be You

"Muddy the Water is a spellbinding thriller that marks the arrival of a sterling crime fiction author duo. Jessica Barrows Beebe and Matt Barrows offer the trifecta: a creepy killer, a no-nonsense rogue detective, and an ambitious reporter dying (literally?) for the scoop. I couldn't put Muddy the Water down, and I'm not-so-secretly hoping for a sequel."-Kathleen West, author of Home or Away

"A thrilling debut by a brother and sister duo. Fast-paced and funny, Muddy the Water is a cross between The Talented Mr. Ripley and Where the Crawdads Sing. It grabs you by the collar and won't let go."-Jo Piazza, bestselling author of The Sicilian Inheritance

"Muddy the Water sings with crackling dialogue while surprising with clever twists that continually raise the stakes. Propulsive and suspenseful, Muddy the Water is ultimately a murder mystery about if it bleeds, it leads. I loved it."-Don Carr, author of the eco-thriller The Midnight Rambler