Ask for Me Tomorrow

Margaret Millar was never as well known as her husband, Ross Macdonald. That's a shame because she was a very talented mystery novelist. I found a dogeared copy of Ask For Me Tomorrow in a thrift store. It was wonderful to read it on the planes and trains that I took on a journey across Europe. The plot of AFMT is interesting. It closely resembles the plot of one of Ross Macdonald's novels. The story involves a young Los Angeles attorney, Tom Aragon, who is hired to find a wealthy woman's ex-husband. The ex-husband went missing several years earlier in Baja, California. Aragon journeys to Mexico and finds a twisted tale of sex, greed, and murder. The one thing that I did not like about the plot is that Millar's conclusion is a bit too neat. (This is also a shortcoming in several of Ross Macdonald's novels). One of the best things about AFMT is Millar's use of California and Mexico as settings. Readers will enjoy forming vivid mental pictures of the Pacific Ocean, a peasant community, and a seedy Mexican bar filled with American expatriates. Millar makes the reader feel as though he or she has been in Baja California circa 1976. Millar's characters tend to be smart alecks. They often subtly and overtly insult each other. There is some excellent dialogue in AFMT. Sometimes, however, it seems as though Millar tries a little bit too hard to be cute with the word games that her characters play. In summary, AFTM is a great book for mystery lovers who like tangled plots, sensual settings, and wry dialogue.

One of America's best classical mystery story writers, Margaret Millar, always provides her readers with convincing characters embroiled in thrilling and ingenious plots.ASK FOR ME TOMORROW introduces her young lawyer sleuth, Tomas Aragon, a Spanish-speaking Californian of charm and intelligence. He is hired by a wealthy woman to find her ex-husband, B.J. Lockwood, who eight years earlier ran off to Mexico with his 15-year-old pregnant girlfriend. From a letter received, the former wife knows that Lockwood was involved with a dubious individual named Jenkins in a grandiose scheme to convert the girl's primitive Baja California fishing village into a tourist resort.Tomas Aragon makes two trips to this colorful part of the world and soon discovers that the resort scheme failed badly and that both promoters have since disappeared. In the course of many interviews he does his best to track down the elusive husband, but his task is not made easier by three brutal murders. After run-ins with a variety of characters - some comic, some uncomfortably sinister, all very real - Aragon discovers the surprising truth.The Mexican setting has a wonderful air of authenticity and the dialogue is sharp and witty. This is a crime novel that will keep the reader beguiled and guessing to the very end.