Sherratt, author of The Brimstone Murders and two other Jimmy O'Brien Mysteries, set part of his latest novel in the Mojave and explores a fictional borax mine that ties in with the plot of the book. He says the idea was the result of his hobby: flying a private plane.

"I have a pilot’s license and have been flying small planes since I was a teenager," he says. "The inspiration for the borax mine (in The Brimstone Murders) came primarily from a trip I took a number of years ago. I was invited to tour a huge soda ash mine, operating in the vicinity of Green River Wyoming. Not missing a chance to fly my small plane, I accepted. Riding around in a golf cart type of vehicle in a dark, claustrophobic tunnel 1000 feet underground was a little unnerving. Because I'd been able to spend several days touring an actual operating mining facility, it hadn't been difficult to concoct a fictionalized version for the book."

In The Brimstone Murders, attorney Jimmy O’Brien is led into the seemingly unrelated worlds of high-profile, religious evangelism and old-fashioned Mojave Desert borax mining when his client Robbie Farris escapes at arraignment, and subsequently Robbie's mother is found murdered.