This novel brings to life a host of interesting characters that interact with the main character, both in negative and positive roles, after he appears in a small, rural town in southwest Alabama searching for “black gold”/ oil. Anyone not familiar with the oil industry or geology will not only get an education but a front row seat to the behind the scenes workings, from start to finish, of finding and extracting one of the worlds most valuable natural resources. Cockrell leaves no stones unturned as he lays bare the cruel underbelly of unprincipled men who will stop at nothing to steal what another man has worked a lifetime to acquire. This is a true page turner and guaranteed to captivate both casual readers and experienced oil industry veterans.

This was a great story! Very interesting and an easy read. A great plot with a fabulous ending.

Lately, I typically read two chapters of a book and put it away. The Restless Earth has me reading again.

The story is rich with detail to include the internal dialogue of several main characters The end result: a roller coaster ride in which the story shepherds one toward a greater understanding of particular adversity vs the yearning to continue into the unknown at sometime great risk.

As a little boy growing up in central Mississippi, on that imaginary line from Bolton to So-So [that Alan described in "The Restless Earth"], I spent many a summer day in Devil's Backbone creek digging up shark's teeth and sand dollars, in wonder of the fact that millions of years ago, the land was all under the sea. This author met me there, with my cigar box of shark's teeth, and took me on a geological journey as only an expert teacher can do, then translated that information into a compelling story of southern history with a level of technical detail and cultural accuracy that completely convinced me of these characters, their partnerships, adversities, their nature and their spirit. Alan reminds us of a time and a place where a man's word and his handshake holds up against all the contracts, lawyers, and crooked politicians who are lined up to eat him alive. It is a brotherhood of men of integrity, and maybe a pretty girl or two to make it all worthwhile.