While The Getting Is Good by Matt Riordan was such an entertaining read that I finished in a few hours.
A well written story that kept me hooked from the very beginning.
The characters draw you in and keeps you flipping the pages.
They are realistic and very well developed.
I really enjoyed the writing style. I found myself hooked, turning the pages.

Thank You NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

While the Getting Is Good by Matt Riordan is a character-driven novel the author talked about the complexities of personal choices, morality, and corruption. The story was emotional and with a psychological unraveling of the characters left behind.

Thank you to Hyperion Avenue and NetGalley for the ARC.

I received an advance reading copy (arc) of this book from NetGalley.com in exchange for a fair review. As a Michigander, I am always interested in books that take place in the Great Lakes State. This one in particular caught my eye because it was set during Prohibition when rum-running from Canada was especially profitable and involved some pretty tough gangsters. This book, however, fell short. The story of Eld, a World War I veteran, is a fisherman who lives in a rural area. He gets involved with rum-runners, smuggling illegal hootch from Canada to the U.S. His son, Doc, is caught up in the violence, and Eld goes off to look for him, leaving his wife and daughter behind. The story then picks up with Eld's wife, Maggie. The writing is choppy, the story is scattered, and there is no end. Literally, no end. It just stops as if the author got tired of writing it. The characters were not likeable, and I was very disappointed as I was hoping for a good tale of gangsters during the days of Prohibition.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Hyperion for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Eld, tired of fishing and living paycheck to paycheck, made a choice to go into business with folks who he knew were doing the wrong thing. But his plan was to only do it long enough to pay off his house and put a little aside. But things quickly escalated and he was in too deep. Hunted by gangsters and strangled by the depression, Eld and his family had to make tough choices.

This is a fast paced story about prohibition in the Midwest and a family's struggle to make ends meet. There are so many adult themes tacked in this story. I loved the atmosphere and scenery which are vivid. Overall, a very interesting and entertaining read!

Thank you to NetGalley, Hyperion Avenue, and Matt Riordan for the opportunity to read While the Getting Is Good prior to publication.

I really enjoyed While the Getting Is Good. The atmosphere is so vivid you can almost feel the cold off Lake Huron, and I thought the historical detail was excellent. Eld’s journey as a fisherman turned rum-runner was both tense and believable, and Maggie especially stood out for me as a quietly strong and evolving character. The writing does a great job of showing how desperate circumstances can push people into choices that blur the line between right and wrong.

That said, I can see why some readers had mixed feelings about the pacing and structure. The shifts in perspective—from Eld to Maggie and beyond—sometimes felt abrupt, and the ending is more open-ended than I expected. It didn’t ruin the story for me, but it may leave some readers wanting a bit more closure or better pacing.

Overall, I’d still recommend this one, especially to anyone who enjoys character-driven historical fiction with a gritty edge. It’s thought-provoking, immersive, and full of moral complexity. Definitely worth picking up if you’re in the mood for something atmospheric and a little different.

While the Getting Is Good by Matt Riordan (Hyperion Avenue, 26 August 2025) is an immersive piece of historical crime fiction. Set in 1932 in the waning days of Prohibition and the depths of the Great Depression, Eldridge Mackey is scraping by as a herring fisherman in the small town of Minden on the eastern side of Michigan. He is worried about his family’s future, short- and long-term, especially his son’s, who Eld believes deserves more than the hard life of a fisherman. Gangsters from Detroit arranged with him and several of his neighbors to cross Lake Huron to Ontario and fill their boats with Canadian whiskey for the hoodlums and their customers. Rumors that liquor would soon be legal again made the mobsters anxious to squeeze as much money as possible from the illicit booze before this lucrative revenue stream dried up.

Canadian whiskey producers began to stockpile their wares for sale on the open market to be ready when Prohibition ended, and two gangs squabbled over the shrinking amounts of contraband available. Eld and his friends got caught in the crossfire. The family was shattered, leaving them to start new lives in new locations.

Like Whiskey River by Loren Estleman, one of my all-time favorite crime fiction books, While the Getting Is Good demonstrates that whiskey-smuggling gangsters may have been on top of the world for awhile but inevitably their worlds crashed and everyone around them suffered by association. About half of the book is about Eld’s wife Maggie and how she managed to survive when they were forced to separate. Befriended by the sister of the gangster who lost the Canadian whiskey fight, the two of them team up against the world, making the only choices available to them for their survival which were not great and they eventually encountered the consequences. Maggie is worth a book all her own.

I had trouble putting this action-filled narrative down. The structure of the story with its disrupted chronology, which I generally dislike, is original and compelling, although not completely successful. To me the ending is off: either the story stopped too soon or it went on too long. The point at which it ended feels wrong. Otherwise I found it a great read if dark and sad. Recommended.

Eld is a herring fisherman in Michigan during the Prohibition. When he notices alcohol smugglers are using other fisherman to move whiskey from Canada to the US, Eld senses an opportunity improve his family’s financial circumstances. Despite not wanting to get overly involved in the criminal underworld, Eld soon finds himself heavily involved in the alcohol smuggling business.

For me, the first 40% of this book was great. It was at this point that the story changes focus from Eld to his wife Maggie and doesn’t focus as heavily on the bootlegging but rather changes gears to focus on the Great Depression. My personal preference would have been for this book to stay with Eld’s story the entire time and not change main characters.

I liked the writing style in this book, and it was a relatively quick read. It just wasn’t what I was expecting for over half the book. If you are looking for a novel that focuses on the world of bootlegging in the 1920s, this book will probably leave you frustrated. However, if you are looking for a book that discusses bootlegging, the Great Depression, and people who can’t seem to catch a break, you might enjoy this.

while the getting is good is the second book of Matt Riordan's that I've read. two different stories for sure. While the getting is good is a depression era story of a family that is getting by, but just barely. so Eld the father, husband of the family decides to take a big risk aligning himself and his son "Doc "with bootlegging mobsters. his wife Maggie understands the risk but also sees the "rewards". things don't work out the way they plan and soon Eld is searching for his son and Maggie is on the run with their daughter Bea and a mobster's sister. the story switches to Maggie and her daughter and now friend the mobster's sister as they try to stay one step ahead of past troubles. soon the trouble finds them and so does Eld. its a compelling story with many plot twists. switching to and from all the characters. a very good read all in all.
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This book was hard for me to get into—the beginning felt slow and scattered, and I struggled to connect with the story at first. Around the middle, though, it really picked up. The tension, setting, and characters became engaging, and I found myself eager to see what happened next.

Unfortunately, the ending was a big letdown. It felt abrupt and left too many threads unresolved, which made the strong middle feel wasted. Overall, it’s a well-written historical novel with vivid atmosphere, but it stumbles at the start and finishes without satisfying closure.

This was an interesting book. It had a little bit of everything: action, smuggling, suspense, gangsters, shootouts, jail, teenage drama. It was easy to read and follow and it kept my attention. It did start out slow but the last 70% of the book was definitely fast paced. I felt like there were some things at the end that could’ve been wrapped up better, but overall, I liked it.

I’m honestly not sure what I just read. The writing was simple, but compelling enough that I kept turning the pages. Still, by the end, I was left wondering what the book was really about.

It starts off strong — a promising setup with mobsters, Prohibition, and Canadian whiskey running. I was fully on board for that story and hoped it would continue down that path. But then the narrative starts to shift… and keeps shifting. What began as a gritty historical drama slowly turns into something else entirely — a commentary on cults and anti-religion. The transition didn’t feel natural. It was like the book couldn’t decide what it wanted to be.

The structure also felt uneven. We begin by following Eld, then suddenly we’re with his wife Maggie, and eventually their daughter Bea. Eld’s storyline disappears for a huge portion of the book and only reappears briefly toward the end — before the focus shifts again, and Maggie and Bea abruptly close out the story.

It felt like three different books loosely strung together — and I never felt like any of them fully landed. I was left with a lot of questions, mostly about what the point of it all was. I wish the story had stayed rooted in the world it introduced at the beginning. That’s the book I wanted to read.

very well done and interesting story with some deeply interesting plotting and feels. would definitely recommend. 4 tars. tysm for the arc.

A fisherman struggling to support his family during the Great Depression makes a bad decision.

Eldridge Mackay came home from the Great War to marry the woman who presented him with a toddler born while he was in France. A decent man, Eld tries to live a good life despite the creeping nihilism of the 1920s. With the idea that Prohibition would end soon, he decides to provide a nest egg for his wife, Maggie, and their children, Doc and Bea, by smuggling whiskey from Canada.

When Eld's choices destroy what he has worked so hard to protect, Maggies makes some bad decisions of her own.
The Mackays have never thought of themselves as saints, but they end up turning themselves into monsters.

While the Getting is Good is well-written and offers a fascinating picture of life in America between the world wars, Eld and Maggie are interesting characters and I cared what happened to them.

Unfortunately, being invested in these people left me vulnerable to feeling profoundly depressed by their nihilism. It is no spoiler to say that the book just ended. Nothing was resolved or fixed or even left open to a future resolution. It just ended. After over three hundred pages, I think the reader deserves more. The only thing I felt was disappointment
and. if the point of this book was "crime doesn't pay", I didn't need the lesson.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for the opportunity to read a free advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I feel like WHILE THE GETTING IS GOOD is the kind of book that you’ll either love or hate, especially with this kind of ending. I personally love these kinds of stories, where there’s a lot to think about when you finish the last page. My main issue with this book is the frequent change in perspective between three characters. I also found it to be rambling, with a slow moving quality. Right when I was finally getting into a groove with a particular character, the perspective would change and I’d have to start over. There is a particularly jarring change in the middle which I understand, but didn’t love.

Matt Riordan does a fantastic job putting the reader into prohibition era Michigan and into the minds of its characters, especially WWI veteran Eld.

WHILE THE GETTING IS GOOD asks questions about morality and conscience, and the choices between right and wrong when there’s so much to be gained from doing something that may not be right. Unfortunately, I had a hard time wholeheartedly enjoying this one but I very much appreciated the opportunity to read an early digital copy, courtesy of publisher Hyperion Avenue and NetGalley, in exchange for my honest feedback.

Eld should’ve known better. Hell, he did know better. But watching lesser men hit big paydays—men who didn’t fight in Europe—grew unbearable. So, when the opportunity arises, he reaches for a little something extra for his family, and even more for himself. With Prohibition expiring in a matter of months, his turn from fisherman to rumrunner was supposed to be temporary. It seemed the perfect plan. Even Maggie, Eld’s normally sensible wife, is on board.

Things don’t go to plan. Amid the region’s players battle to capture the biggest piece of a shrinking pie, Eld’s tiny family operation is caught in the crossfire. One bitterly cold night packing whiskey across Lake Huron costs Eld dearly, and his family even more.

Hunted by gangsters and squeezed by the Depression, Eld, Maggie, and the children are scattered: Eld to Canada on a doomed quest, Maggie and her daughter forced into finding sanctuary in a faith more cult than religion. When they finally reunite, they may not even recognize each other as the same people who crossed their fingers and threw the dice for a shot at a better life.

This book digs into some tough subjects like morality, corruption and complex relationships. Sometimes people don’t think fully about their morally ambiguous choices until it’s too late.

Eld was tired of fishing and living paycheck to paycheck, so he made a choice to go into business with folks who he knew darn well were doing the wrong thing. But he’d only do it long enough to pay off his house and put a little aside. He even managed to get his wife on board. But things quickly escalated and he was in too deep.

This book has many characters, it can be hard to keep track, but it was a solid 4-star book that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Maggie's husband gets involved in prohibition, and she does what she has to do to survive and provide for her daughter.

Prohibition presented opportunities for quick but risky money moving liquor from Canada to Detroit and Southeast Michigan in the 1930's. This book drew my interest as a lifetime Michigander interested in its history. Following the Great Depression, Eld is a fisherman struggling provide for his family. He gets the chance to move bootleg liquor from Canada via his simple fishing boat. Prohibition will end soon so the opportunity is now or never. Is it worth the risk and what will be the cost? Desperate times sometimes lead to desperate measures. Overall, it’s an enjoyable read and includes interesting information about the trials and tribulations of the post depression time period, prohibition, bootlegging, and crime syndicates. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of While the Getting is Good. 3.5 rounded up to 4.0

I was disappointed in this book. It seemed to move very slow, and sometimes I couldn’t follow the storyline. I was also disappointed in the ending. I received a copy of this book free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The story was a little hard to get through. I didn’t mind when it jumped from Eld but it was sudden! Also the ending was very strange and perhaps incomplete? I wanted more of the prohibition story. I love historical fiction so thought I was going to get more of that.