Definitely was interesting premise. Got lost after we introduced detective and pharmacist storyline. Wasn’t interested in that. Ended up DNFing at 10%

The Milk Wagon is a coming of age story combined with money laundering, conspiracy, and murder. Three boys, on the first day of junior year, meet Nate. Nate is a ladies man with plenty of cash and some murky secrets.

What follows is a twisting, turning, tedious story rife with money laundering and murder. It went around in circles for much too long.

Although The Milk Wagon was not my favorite, I would recommend this title to anyone looking for a "boy" book.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a free digital copy of this title to review from Net Galley.

#TheMilkWagon#NetGalley

Many thanks to Netgalley and publishers for providing this review copy.

I struggled with this one a lot. I felt confused because there are so many different perspectives and I just couldn’t keep track of who was who and what was going on. I didn't connect with any of the characters and wondered why I should are. Overall I don’t think this book was for me.

Fast paced book and I really enjoyed it. Good story line and I think people are gonna love it. I would definitely read again and recommend

Matt is planning his 30th High-School-Reunion and takes a look back at a very special semester when a new kid named Nate joined their clique, and together they had the adventure of their life.

I enjoyed the parts written from the perspective of Matt very much. It's a quite special coming-of-age story, that soon turns into a detective story. I could have done without the chapters from the perspective of FBI Agent Kathryn Cooper. At first they confused me a bit, until I got the gist of the story. And later they weren't really necessary. I would have been a lot more interested in what Nate had to say about all of this, in his version of everything! And what happened after the book ended!

But overall a very good book that I enjoyed very much.

this was an enjoyable mystery, the characters were great and I had a really good time reading it. I look forward to more from the author.

This was a great coming of age story that included the thriller genre. It's a fast paced story that I couldn't put down. I read this in one sitting, but I didn't want to finish it!

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this E-book to review via Netgalley.

Absolutely great! I stumbled up on this book while glancing through NetGalley. I made the request solely on the interesting cover. I really haven't been reading much in the past few months, but when I decided to take a break from so much social media, I was looking for something light to distract me. I chose this book based on the great reviews. I will not call this light reading, but it had a certain element of fun in an otherwise dark storyline. I loved the characters, particularly the main narrator. I found all the characters and the settings totally relatable to high school, even though I am 58 years old. The author did a great job in painting the setting of that time, the carefree high school days of my youth. I loved everything about the story, and there were enough surprises to keep me interested. I just loved the entire narrative and flow of this book. I am not a fast reader, so it took me several days to read, but I found myself anxious to get back to the book every day. I haven't found a book that held me interest in a while like this one did. I would recommend this book to any general fiction or mystery lover, or to anyone who just longs for the carefree days of high school...with a high drama story built in. Do yourself a favor and give this book a try! I will definitely look for other reads by this author.

This is a fantastic peek into the 1980's! If you want a great summer thriller with some nostalgic feels, this is the book for you!
I loved how this book kept you guessing. Its a crime mystery and with some books you think you knowbhownit is going to end, not with Milk Wagon! I was guessing until the end. I highly recommend this book. This is a great all year read but It wpuld definitely be a home run if you read tbis on a hot summer day at the park.

Many thanks to Netgalley and publishers for providing this review copy.

For fans of any 80s friendship tale, The Milk Wagon tells the story of Matt and his friends and their quest to dig their new friend Nate out of the biggest pickle of his life.

I thoroughly enjoyed the who done it nature of this story. While we are brought back to the 1980s getting to know this group of high school boys, the mystery starts to unfold. I enjoyed the various perspectives added and thought this book well paced and thoroughly designed. I was hooked into the friendship between these boys from the start- their eyes set on cars, parties and girls. It comes to their surprise when they find out just what their new friend Nate is going through and how they all come together to make the impossible possible. Well done!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed The Milk Wagon, a suspenseful coming-of-age story by Michael Hewes. Hewes is a new-to-me author and I look forward to picking up other books by him. In fact, I see there is an earlier published novel with the same main character, Matt Frazier, that I look forward to reading.

This novel was fast-paced and had me turning pages without constantly checking how far till the end of the chapter, or what percentage I'd read. We know from the synopsis that Nate Mayes disappears, and the author takes us on a twisty ride to learn how and why this happens.

Gulfport, Mississippi in the 1980s was a great setting for the story. I am not from the South, but I do enjoy reading about it Also, the portrayal of Matt, Nate, Hop, and Mark as 1980s teenage boys and their friendship was very believable. I enjoyed the scenes with Matt and his friends more than Kathryn, the FBI agent, although I appreciated that her scenes moved the investigation forward.

I'm so glad that I found this novel. I read a lot of mysteries and thrillers, but this one pulled me in and kept me reading more than many others that I have read recently.

When I first started reading this, I really wasn't sure it was my sort of thing.
When it switched to someone else's point of view I am not gonna lie, I was really confused and actually checked my kindle to see if I had somehow switched to another book by mistake.
I debated giving up but decided to give it just a few more chapters, and I am really glad that I did, because I then really enjoyed it and couldn't put it down.
Was set in the 80's and when it was described as someone thing about what life would be like with video phones I had to smile! And the amount of times the characters talked about having to find a pay phone - I do remember those days quite well.
So glad I persevered with this book - definitely a good read.

Wow. What can I say about this book... It picked me up, transported me straight to 80s high school America and swaddled me in nostalgia and excitement. Stranger Things crosses with The Goonies and lands in The Milk Wagon.

This story follows a group of high school friends on their coming of age journey through what should be a typical year at school. You have the rich kid who never wants for anything, the kid whose parents feed the boy's friends like she's convinced they're being starved at home, the football meathead, the constantly obsessed by sex kid, and the quiet secretive new one who is clearly having a tough time at home. We follow their journey into being interested in girls, the homecoming weekend and the social calendar highlight of St. John's version of their school prom.

This however turns out not to be the normal year at school they all assumed it would be, when they get dragged in to investigating a shady underground money laundering plot, in an attempt to help one of their gang with his ever increasing troubles at home. Assisted along the way by the help of The Milk Wagon of course.

This story has all the nostalgia and friendship of Stranger Things, with the excitement from The Goonies, and the fear from The Godfather thrown in for measure. There are plenty of 80s cultural references on every page. You can hear the 80s in the music references, taste the 80s in the fast food references, see the 80s in their clothes and feel the 80s in their long cord telephone conversations and Star Wars references. It made me nostalgic for an era I didn't even get to grow up in.

I sailed through this book, absolutely captured in the story. It was one of those rare delights of a book that I found so super easy to read, I'd read half the book before I'd realised. That is not to say there wernt twists on the journey though. The whole story, you can feel the lead up to something. When that time comes it is edge of the seat excitement and the build has been worth it. At chapter 22 I had a moment and thought OMG this is it. At chapter 29 I shot out my chair. But..the end though... Ah the end.... There wasn't just a twist, but a series of twists all jumping together to create the perfect finale.

This was such an enjoyable read and written so well. I hope The Milk Wagon recieves the attention and noteriety it deserves. Excuse me while I shuffle back to the disappointment of 2020..

The Milk Wagon by Michael Hewes

Friendship and Mystery – Great Combination!

I love it when we are taken into the past before cell phones!!! This story shared the thoughts and experiences of these juniors in high school to reveal they were typical teenagers and their impact to each other while helping a new friend through difficult home issues was believable. The events surrounding these friends mixed with an FBI investigation works very well and the last chapters kept me guessing and reading to the end. I enjoyed this drama/mystery and I have reread some chapters as I admired how clever it all fit together!



This review was added to Amazon this morning however I am still waiting on their confirmation of receipt/approval as reviewer AWR.

This book had me going. The way the book sets itself up leads you to believe one thing for half the book and then flips the script and then flips it again for the reveal was awesome. I really enjoyed that it was set in the 80's and the main characters were teenagers. I feel as if Hewes treated the teenage characters with respect and didn't try to dumb them down or make them smarter. That's one of the main reasons I finished this book so quickly. It also had a nice slow burn without feeling like it was slow. I think the bookends of the 30 year reunion was done nicely too. It gave an opening to possibly having sequel but left the story nicely wrapped that it could be a stand alone novel. The story is told through a few different narrations and I really liked that and it made the twist payoff that much better. I will definitely be recommending this book to family and friends to read!

The Milk Wagon is a fantastic thriller set in the 80’s, much of it revolving around a group of high school boys. As an 80’s high schooler myself, this was a wonderful walk down memory lane. This book has the 80’s high school mentality exactly right, and transported me back there as the movies we watched, the cars we drove, and the way we thought were so accurately described.

This novel was perfectly woven together as both an 80’s book and a crime/murder thriller. There were many twists and turns, and although I am usually pretty good at guessing the “bad guy,” i was totally wrong this time. The fact that this book was not predictable impressed me.

The characters are so well done, especially the 80s high school kids, that I was sad when it ended. That’s how you tell a great book. You don’t want it to end.

If you love crime thrillers, if you loved the 80s, or if you just love a well written book, check this one out.

I received a free copy of this book from Michael Hewes and BooksGoSocial via Netgalley. My review is voluntary.

I struggled with this one a lot. Every time that I started reading it I felt confused because there are so many different perspectives and I just couldn’t keep track of who was who and what was going on. Overall I don’t think this book was for me.

When I started reading "The Milk Wagon" I was totally unprepared to be engaged in this FBI/coming of age thriller. I could not put it down, reading almost nonstop until the end. The description left me unprepared for the story. This book contains many interesting and believable characters that include the narrator, his friends, his female interest, an artistic savant, and a new kid in town; as well as the FBI agent in charge of a government fraud investigation and her love interest, the local sheriff. The story is woven well as an unsolved murder of a local pharmacist being investigated for fraud and mystery after mystery presents itself to the reader. Three fourths of the way thru the novel the reader begins to see clues as to who the real murderer for hire may be but the real surprise comes at the end. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and would highly recommend it as a great entertaining read.

I admit: what first appealed to me about The Milk Wagon by Michael Hewes was the cover. That sleek, retro '80s image kept calling to me even as I tried to ignore the Mystery title in favor of a different genre. The last mystery book I read was so focused on the detective and his miserable social life, not on the case at hand, and that got me so fed up I couldn't even finish. Be warned: The Milk Wagon is nothing like that one.

Taking place in backwoods Mississippi during the 1980s, The Milk Wagon focuses on a group of teenage boys who find themselves involved in a local money-laundering scheme. The FBI investigator working on the case has nowhere near the amount of information these boys do and it's only a matter of time before it catches up with them. This book was absolutely enthralling because the dynamic between the boys is so cool and natural, I would have read a whole book on these guys hanging out even if there wasn't a mystery going on! Having the story take place in the 1980s was a great aspect of the book because it was that sweet time when kids could be kids with not a cell phone in sight. I also loved that it took place in a small town in Mississippi instead of some big city which made the mystery all the more intriguing. I'm sure you're probably wondering: what is the milk wagon, anyway? Well, it's one of the character's old beat-up suburban that's always with them on their adventures. It gives that tinge of nostalgia for the first vehicle you drove in high school, dependable to a fault.

While there is a detective in this story, only as much as necessary about her personal life is revealed so I really appreciated that. The focus is on the boys and the mystery. The case also didn't feel too far-fetched, like a group of kids could never get involved in something like that. The story was never truly predictable and the author did a great job of understanding that his reader is smart enough to connect dots on her own with just enough help to keep the mystery going.

I usually reserve 5 star reviews but there was no way I could only give this 4. There wasn't a single thing I didn't like about The Milk Wagon! The mystery was exciting, the kids were cool, the investigator was a woman (not some crotchety old man), the premise was believable, and besides being a mystery involving murder and bad men--it had the feel-good aspect of a buddy novel. I highly recommend this read to anyone who loves mystery, intrigue, danger, and friends.

I'd like to thank BooksGoSocial for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

** spoiler alert ** Really enjoyable,nostalgic look back on high school,friendships,girlfriends,parties...


Oh yes,and then the murder,mayhem and money laundering.

Got to be honest,I could have done without the crime and just read about this group of boys for a while longer.

But the crime added tension,and questions as to who and why ,so I can't complain.
The last page left me with a smile.
Cracking little read.