[1] The novel is set in the real-life ghost town of St. Thomas, Nevada, in Clark County, approximately 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

[2] It is now located within Lake Mead National Recreation Area adjacent to Valley of Fire State Park.

The elder Henry believes that water will never reach his home, and refuses the government's attempts to buy his land.

However, Thomas takes a job with Six Companies, the construction group building the Hoover Dam, to earn enough to buy his own home.

An article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal explains that drought has exposed the ruins of St. Thomas, underwater for six decades.

[4] Lord refused to leave St. Thomas until June 11, 1938, when the water was high enough for him to step out his front door into his boat.

Author Howard Frank Mosher, who selected the novel to be the inaugural winner of the book prize named in his honor, stated that "Lords of St. Thomas is both a terrific coming-of-age story and an exact and haunting evocation of a bygone time and place.

Ellis does a compelling job of showing the Lord family's nearly noble hopelessness in their fight to change a fait accompli, without capitulating to sentimentality.

"[5] Midwest Book Review stated, "Lords of St. Thomas masterfully couples a historic event with a classic coming of age story...[offering] a glimpse into the past and a glimmer of hope for the future.

"[6] Pam Ferrell of the Historical Novel Society wrote, "Beautifully written, Lords of St. Thomas is the story of tragedies leading to subsequent tragedies [and] a thoughtful portrayal of the human consequences of major environmental changes,"[7] while Margot Harrison of Seven Days called it "a sparsely eloquent, elegiac novel.