A Tom Aragon Novel Series

Mexican-American lawyer turned P.I., Tom Aragon, investigates the disappearance of Cleo Jasper, a young woman who is as beautiful as she is simple-minded. Her doting brother will stop at nothing to find his defenseless sister, but Aragon realizes that he has once again found himself in over his head when Cleo’s friend turns up dead amidst a sea of somewhat dubious suicide notes.

Tom Aragon receives a strange visit at his law office: a 22-year-old woman named Cleo Jasper, self-described as mentally retarded, comes in to ask him about her rights. The visit lasts fifteen minutes, then Cleo wanders off. Two days later, Tom Aragon is visited by a different Jasper: Cleo’s older brother, Hilton, her legal guardian. Cleo has disappeared and Hilton Jasper wants to hire the lawyer to find her and bring her back. Has Cleo, a legal adult, taken stock of her “rights” and run away? Or did someone take advantage of the simple, suggestible young woman, and something more sinister is afoot?

In this carefully-drawn character study, master of suspense Margaret Millar reveals hard and poignant truths about mental illness, the exploitability of those affected, and the challenges for their families, loved ones, and caretakers.

An affair between the help and a club member is always looked at with suspicion at the prestigious Penguin Beach Club in Santa Barbara but when both go missing it’s an outrage.

Enter Tom Aragon, the droll Mexican-American lawyer turned private investigator, who finds himself navigating a viper’s nest of California elites in his quest for the truth.

Miranda Shaw and Grady Keaton should have made for a run-of-the-mill scandal at the prestigious Penguin Beach Club. Shaw, a recently widowed woman of fifty, was seen leaving the club with Keaton, a ruggedly handsome lifeguard half her age. When Miranda and Keaton go missing, the widower’s lawyer sends his handiest man to find out where they’ve wandered off to. The clues come one stranger than the next for Tom Aragon in this often-hilarious novel of folly among the California elite.

Introducing Tom Aragon, a fast-talking Mexican-American attorney turned private investigator, who is sent by his boss to track down a wealthy client’s philandering ex-husband in Mexico. His boss’ good idea of sending a Mexican to Mexico soon proves less than a sure thing as Aragon encounters crooked expats, land scams, and dead-end after dead-end in this quixotic and very entertaining homage to Chandler and Hammett.

Gilda Decker needs a new bag, what with her second husband being suddenly crippled and her ex-husband hiding himself and his money somewhere in the hinterlands of Mexico. Gilda’s recently retained lawyer, Tom Aragon, Mexican himself, is the best man for the job. But the deeper Aragon digs into her ex-husband’s past the more dangerous his job becomes.

One of Millar’s few reoccurring characters and her only foray into the tradition of Chandler and Hammett, Tom Aragon, ranks among her best creations. A sarcastic but talented young lawyer with a few rough edges, Aragon finds himself navigating one entitled nest of vipers after another, not to mention racial prejudice.