Your Grandpa Tom, he used to tell me that if you walked far enough toward the sunset, you’d come to Ghost Country, where you could talk to the dead. He said a long time ago, you could bring the dead back; but then mankind messed up. Well, it’s a long story.

Tristan McLean talking about his father, in The Lost Hero

Thomas "Tom" McLean was the father of Tristan McLean and the grandfather of Piper McLean.


Piper called him Grandpa Tom, and explains that he died of lung cancer a few years before she left for Camp Half-Blood and also before Tristan became famous and could have payed for his medication. He believed in Cherokee myths and animal spirits, and told his son Tristan frequently about them. Piper and her father spent one night camping out in front of his house in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. That night, she and her father discussed Cherokee and Greek legends about the stars.

Piper M.

Piper, his granddaughter

Thomas McLean was the one who decided to name her Piper, as he said that she would have the greatest voice in the whole family because of her loud screaming as a baby. He had also said that she would learn how to sing the toughest Cherokee songs, like "The Snake Song." He also told Tristan stories about how the stars were formed and that the Greek myths were a "bunch of bull" in his opinion.

The Heroes of Olympus

The Lost Hero

Grandpa Tom appears in some of Piper's flashbacks and is mentioned in a few of her father's stories he tells her. Piper remembers her grandfather's tales, and realizes that they are quite similar to the Greek myths.

The Trials of Apollo

The Burning Maze

Piper uses a blowpipe which shoots out darts laced with poison which Grandpa Tom made. The effects of the poison causes the target to become paralyzed.