Thank you! Getting feedback on feedback is a real treat. I'm glad you've enjoyed mine, because I sometimes fear that I go overboard in commenting. But I just find it too much fun to stop.
That's very interesting, about the difficulty of writing Muriel. She is a very specific type, and it probably would have been easy to tip her into caricature. To do as you've done -- to keep her as her prickly, prejudiced self and yet make her both layered and appealing -- is quite a feat.