Muddy Waters

by Judy Astley

This is the story of Stella, an advice columnist for a teenage magazine. Stella's friends assume she doesn't have any problems of her own and deluge her with their woes. Abigail, deserted by her husband, moves in with Stella, but then starts to move in on Stella's husband.

Genres: Humor, Chick Lit, Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1997

About the author

Judy Astley started writing in 1990 following several years of working as a dressmaker, illustrator, painter and parent. Her sixteen novels, the most recent of which are Laying The Ghost and Other People¹s Husbands, are all published by Transworld/Black Swan. Judy¹s specialist areas, based on many years of hectic personal experience, are domestic disharmony and family chaos with a good mix of love-and-passion and plenty of humour thrown in. Judy has been a regular columnist on magazines and enjoys writing journalism pieces on just about any subject, usually from a fun viewpoint. She lives in London and Cornwall, loves plants, books, hot sunshine and rock music (all at once, preferably) and would happily claim that listening in to other people¹s conversations is both a top hobby and an absolute career-necessity

Reviews

[Marjorie Moono Simuyuni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muddy Waters is a narrative of best friends, who are as different from each other as the palm and the back of the hand. Whereas Stella is an Agony Aunt, with a 'stable' family, Abigail is an adult fixated at adolescence, living for fun and sampling every other pair of boxers she comes across, even if she's living 'the life', married to a big time millionaire, having changed husbands (and lovers) like underwear.

Abigail assumes she's what every man desires but she gets the shock of her life when her multimillionaire husband, Martin, takes off with another woman. It is at this point that one realises she suffers from a nagging low self-esteem that makes her want to hurt every person she thinks is happy. Her envy lands on her best friend, Stella, and she decides she now wants to 'settle' with her best friend's husband, Adrian, with whom she had a one-night stand in adolescence, behind Stella's back.

While pretending to seek comfort from her Stella, Abigail stays with her for a while, planning on how to live there permanently, and working out a way of getting rid of her. During her stay in Stella's town, she manages to make enemies, beginning with Stella's children. While Stella is busy trying to help her friend during her trying moment, Abigail is busy seducing Adrian.

Astley chooses a perfect title for this story. But one wonders, is it literal or figurative? Stella's town is surrounded by water. It's an island, obviously. Has Abigail come to stir the waters? Is it the serenity in Stella's life that is being referred to as waters? Whatever the case, we must know a few Abigail's, especially in this era of social media, where to seem seems to be more important than to actually be happy. From afar, some seem glorious and accomplished but deep inside, they are miserable and wish for what may not gleam because they admit, when nobody is present, that it's usually realer than what they have.

Certainly one must know some Stella's too, who are comfortable with their life but every time they see the glam of Abigail's, they begin to feel dissatisfied, looking down on themselves, oblivious to the fact that the Abigail's would kill for the life they live, as boring as it may seem.

But certainly, stability must come with some form of monotony and handling monotony is not a thing for everyone.

To be fair though, monotony is in everything. Whether you're a Stella or an Abigail or an Adrian for that matter, life is generally monotonous. Whatever you do, you'll do again, whatever it is, wherever you'll do it from, however you'll do it, you'll still do it again and again and again. Like we eat, bath, work, sleep, etc. Whether we eat different food tomorrow, it's still an act of eating. Whether we sleep at a different time, it's still an act of sleeping. This could be the reason why even the people we assume have it all, don't actually have it all, and probably wish for the little of the have-nots, thinking it could make them happy.

Maybe happiness is not found in things, after all! Looking at Peggy, she doesn't own much but she's content living in a barge, and doesn't want to relocate, until she finds love. It's only love that gets her to leave the island. Is Judy Astley saying love is more gratifying than wealth? Stella seems to think so. Even Abigail herself has come to that conclusion. Toby must be thinking as well. Adrian, regardless of being immersed in daily readings and writings of fiction, equally thinks the same. Is Judy Astley making a statement using the characters? Maybe or maybe not.

What is not questionable, however, is the author's great sense of humour and how she uses it to paint mental pictures on the mind of the reader. Her descriptions are vivid and hilarious, nothing short of amazing.

However, Muddy Waters is like the much expected sneeze that never comes. Because the humour and suspense of what happens next keeps you going, you feel the sneeze coming and you know it's going to be grand, but you eventually read the final full stop and realize the end is here but the sneeze did not happen. The suspense you experienced was probably a product of your own imaginings, you just finished reading a 285-paged book but you feel nothing afterwards. Totally nothing. So you throw the book across the room and lean back.

You like books that surprise you and that one just surprised you with a lack of climax. At least it made you laugh in its initial stages anyway. Or maybe it was only meant to do that? Then it succeeded!

I have gone back to books a few times before but I am certain I am not rereading this particular one!

[Random Spider (on a hiatus?) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Muddy Waters (by Judy Astley) is...well, muddy. I don't know whether it was intentional or not, but it was cruddy in directions (writing format, plot layout, character execution, etc.) And I'll admit that Judy Astley's writing style isn't my favorite. That, though, should not be enough reason to not like the book overall.

Are there something within that I don't despise? There are a couple of characters named Willow and Abigail that I like (though it's more due to my personal taste.) The former is quirky and a savage, while the latter is such a petty, manipulave bitch it's hard not to fancy her. Objectively though, they are nothing special.

The book was all over the place. It REALLY took its time describing every single detail (many of which were negligible/unecessary/redundant.) This really hurts the pacing, and it happened so many times it was genuinely annoying to encounter. OH, yeah! Forgot to mention that half the time I was reading, it was a challenge for my brain to focus and continue. IT WAS A CHORE.

I'm too lazy to discuss the other 'wrong moves' the book did (unlikable/undeveloped/questionable characters, uninteresting plot, unsatisfying ending, etc.) I'll end it here, a 3/10 book.

[Julie Dunnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another grubby book with some unloveable characters. Stella is lovely and believable but her friend Abigail is a bitch. Her husband Adrian is lazy, and easily led. Goodness knows why Stella did not just send Adrian off with Abigail but of course why should dishes get what she was aiming at? Don’t know why I did not bin this book 20 years ago!

[dennis Waters · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy little read but although a lot seems to happen not a lot does. Some of the ideas were good such as an art community on an island in the river Thames but some things were just irritating such as a man spying on the community (just didn’t make sense) also felt Abigail’s character just didn’t work.

[penelopewanders]

I think I may have picked this up at the wrong time, because I somehow missed the humor here. The characters all seemed mostly annoying - the heroine too trusting, the hero too weak, the "best" friend pretty horrid... The couple's children were the most palatable, really.
I enjoyed a different book by this author, so maybe this one's just not the right fit for me.

[Georgina Abbotts · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first book I've read by Judy and the reviews are great especially as they say Judy is like Jenny collegan.i really enjoyed this book it was light hearted it won't be the last book I read by Judy Astley that's for sure

[Julie Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tales of the riverbank

Escape to Pansy Island and meet the eccentric residents. A good book for escaping from every day life. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this Judy Ashley book about life with the artists on this little island. An easy read, not at all demanding, entertaining!

[Mrs Nicole M Middleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful

Loved it. Funny, sad, hilarious at times, as well written as Judy’s
other books. Read it in one go, housework’s still there!

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Is someone watching her?
Roxie Whitaker is struggling to make her grandmother’s real estate business a success. When her coastal home is burglarized, her rosy worldview dims. Atlanta security expert Sloan Harding distracts her from her troubles, but is Mossy Bog’s former bad boy serious about her?
Never one to shy away from muddy waters, Sloan is determined to find his alleged missing inheritance. Sparks fly as he enters into a business arrangement with Roxie to oversee the restoration of his childhood home. With her help, Sloan resurrects old secrets while a dangerous predator stalks them.
When passion meets danger, will love win the day?"


A quick thoroughly enjoyable read (it only took me half a day to read this) with romance, suspense and a treasure hunt all combined into a good book! I really think that anyone enjoying a mystery will enjoy this book!

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holiday read

[LindyLouMac · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read in 1997

[Jeanette Turner]

This book was difficult to obtain as I understand it is now out of print, but it was well worth the effort getting it.