“What if he got bumped off and the guy who showed up for work the next day was an impostor?”
– Matt Barrows and Jessica Barrows Beebe
Matt and Jessica, thank you for joining us! Can you tell us a bit about yourselves, your professional journeys, and what motivated you to write Muddy the Water?
We both graduated from the University of Virginia and went into journalism, Matt in newspapers and Jessica in television news. We’ve known for years that we have similar tastes in books, TV shows and movies — we both love the science, forensics and subtlety of a well-written mystery or suspense novel. When the pandemic grounded us to a halt and Matt was completely isolated and Jessica was trapped in her house with three teenagers and a loud husband, we both needed an outlet for creativity and to regain our sanity.
What was the inspiration behind Muddy the Water? How did your experiences in journalism shape the story and its themes?
In 1997 Matt drove south from Virginia to Hilton Head, SC, to start a job as a reporter for a small newspaper called the Hilton Head Island Packet. That’s when he started thinking: what if he got bumped off and the guy who showed up for work the next day at The Packet was an impostor? After all, he’d been hired over the phone. No one had any idea what he looked like. That kernel of an idea rattled around in Matt’s head for decades. He even sketched out the plot and wrote down character names. Abraham Mink was one of them. But it never went beyond that until February 2020, when he relayed the rough idea to Jessica during a family dinner. “Let’s write it together” she said, her eyes on fire. Soon after, we were on the phone with a coroner from Jasper County, SC, confirming that a dead body can, in fact, travel 75 miles from an inland river to the ocean largely intact. We had hit the literary jackpot!
The book recently received the BREW Seal of Excellence. What does this recognition mean to you, and how does it reflect your goals as authors?
We are very proud to have received the BREW Seal of Excellence. As journalists, we care about solid, accurate writing and we took pains – and interviewed a number of experts – to make sure our novel was grounded in science and facts. It is really gratifying to be recognized for our work.
How did your respective backgrounds—Matt in sports journalism and Jessica in TV news and fundraising—come together in this creative project?
We both worked in newsrooms for a lot of our careers and those newsrooms are tumultuous places – lots of sweat, stress and yelling. We wanted to show those aspects, and also the idea that reporters work very hard for very little but they are proud to be able to bring important truths to their readers.
As storytellers, what role do you think creativity and innovation play in crafting narratives that resonate with diverse audiences?
Of course, innovation is important and every author wants to write a unique book. Muddy the Water is told from three different perspectives, the killer, the detective and the reporter, which we believe we executed well, without jarring the reader too much between chapters. But the different perspectives isn’t particularly innovative. What is unique with Muddy is that the reader knows who the killer is in the first chapter and the question for the reader is: will he get away with it?
In today’s world, diversity and sustainability are increasingly important. How do you think authors and journalists can contribute to these global goals through their work?
One of the best parts of writing a novel is coming up with the characters. A diverse cast of characters makes a story much more interesting, just like it does our communities and our country. We took pains to work diversity and environmental issues into our story without hitting the reader over the head with them. Sometimes subtle suggestions work best.
Our main character, Detective Lillian Grimes, is a gay woman and her best friend is a straight married man, which we thought was a pretty unique relationship that we haven’t seen in a lot of novels. We made sure her sexuality is clear, but not something that takes attention away from her main objective, which is to catch a killer.
She teams up with Florence Park, an Asian American reporter whose parents immigrated from South Korea. Again, her ethnicity is apparent, but not the driving force behind her character.Along the way we meet a man from the local Gullah community, Abraham Mink. The Gullah Geechee live in the coastal areas and sea islands of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. They’re the descendants of slaves brought in from West Africa for their expertise at growing rice in low-lying coastal areas.
One of the villains in Muddy the Water is the golf course, whose use of fertilizer is killing the oyster beds in a local waterway. We delicately worked the golf course (and some of its employees) into our narrative to underscore how population growth affects the environment. Even our self-centered serial killer notes that the oysters, and with them people’s livelihoods, are disappearing.
If you could highlight one challenge you faced while writing Muddy the Water and one breakthrough moment, what would they be?
As any new author knows, getting noticed in the publishing world is very difficult.
After we completed our manuscript we queried agents for months and months looking for representation. Most queries did not even get responses. Finally, through a friend of a friend, we were introduced to a literary agent in New York, who loved our book and wanted to represent us. But in the post-pandemic atmosphere where everyone and their brother (literally!!) had just written a novel, it was difficult to get a publisher to bite, even with a great agent.
What’s next for you both? Are there any new projects, sequels, or initiatives you’re excited to share with readers?
Yes! Matt and Jessica are pleased to announce a sequel to Muddy the Water (whose title is yet to be determined) with many of the same characters, including Lillian Grimes, Ben Broome and Florence Park. It, too, will be grounded in facts with lots of believable twists and turns and a fantastic finale!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“A diverse cast of characters makes a story much more interesting, just like it does our communities and our country.”
– Matt Barrows and Jessica Barrows Beebe
Links
- Know more about the BREW Book, Blog, and Poetry Awards here
Share Your Insights
We’d love to hear your thoughts! Join the conversation by sharing your insights:
- What role do you think creativity plays in making stories resonate with diverse audiences?
- How can authors and journalists better address pressing global issues like environmental sustainability in their work?
- Which perspectives or themes in novels capture your attention the most?
Alignment with the UN SDGs
- SDG 5 (Gender Equality): Features strong female characters like Detective Lillian Grimes, emphasizing diverse roles for women in literature.
- SDG 13 (Climate Action): Addresses environmental issues, like the impact of fertilizer on oyster beds.
- SDG 10 (Reduced Inequality): Highlights diverse characters, fostering inclusivity and representation.
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