Gusher!: A Novel of the Rockefeller Oil Empire

When anyone can strike it rich in an instant and lose it all just as quickly, it takes a titan to stay on top.

In the 1870s, the oil business can make or break a man. No one appreciates that fact more than Matthew Strong, a young man from Oil City, Pennsylvania, with big dreams, not to mention the talent to back them up. The search for a gusher has already cost Matthew dearly; both his father and older brother died in the fields. Their deaths drove a rift between Matthew and his mother, and also tore him apart from the only woman he’s ever loved. But despite the risks, the pursuit of oil is a fortune that Matthew has no choice but to chase in an effort to redeem his father’s sacrifice.

When a chance meeting in Cleveland with his hero John D. Rockefeller leads to a job with Standard Oil, Matthew quickly rockets up the chain of command as the company takes a stranglehold on the emerging market. But no great achievement comes without a cost. And the price that Matthew has to pay to keep pace with his rivals climbs higher than a barrel of oil. Just when he’s reached the pinnacle of his professional and personal life, an unspeakable tragedy threatens to bring everything Matthew has worked so hard to build crashing down. At his lowest point since the death of his father, Matthew can’t resist the allure of one last hunt for the biggest gusher yet. Will he be able to outrun the demons of his past and build an empire that rivals his mentor’s against all odds?

A sweeping, sumptuous Gilded-Era epic that features cameos from the titans that built the American oil industry, Gusher is an exhaustively researched, compelling trip back in time to the creation of a singular American dream.