Missing Mona: A Tommy Cuda Mystery
by Joe Klingler
Hard-BoiledAdded on January 15, 2026
Description
Tommy has boomeranged back to his parents residence and a dead-end job after too many years in college. As he looks squarely at his next decade of life his smartphone convinces him the time is ripe for a change. A gift from his grandfather provides the means, so he embarks on the path of blues artists and beatniks before him—and hits the road. He immediately meets a damsel in hitchhiking distress who says her name is Mona. Her presence persuades him that the bright lights and dark clubs of Chicago might be his kind of town. So on a summer Saturday night they settle into a fancy hotel overlooking the beaches of Lake Michigan. On Sunday...Mona disappears. But she leaves behind more than a sweet memory that involves Tommy in a brand new cash flow problem he never imagined. While trying to sort out how to stay on the right side of the law and get back on the road, he meets a young criminologist who helps him, a DJ who doesn’t, and a librarian who teaches him about the city, women, and the art of the makeover. After truth and lies are stirred like a blue martini, being assaulted by a pink monkey, and witnessing a drive-by shooting that drowns a Ferrari—Tommy is desperate to help Mona. If he can find her.
Reader Reviews
This was the first book that came aaaaaaall the way from the US for me to read and review it. When I saw the cover I immediately had to think of David Lynch's Lost Highway, which is a weird ass sort of arthouse/mystery/thriller movie which I love, but is definitely not for everyone. My hunches about these kinds of things are usually pretty good and it turned out there were some unexpected similarities between Missing Mona and Lost Highway. Thankfully, though, Missing Mona was a lot less fucked u
I hate to leave a bad review of any novel; writing a novel is difficult. Unfortunately, this novel just didn’t work for me. It was 150 pages too long, ridiculously complicated, introduced significant characters seemingly at random and had plot holes so big that the unappealing (except, apparently, to every attractive woman in the novel) protagonist could have driven his car through it. In other words, clearly written to be the basis of a Hollywood movie. I hope it becomes one.
“Missing Mona” was a fun read. It took me awhile to really get into the story but once I did the suspense had me flipping pages to unravel all those loose threads! I have to admit that when I began the book I did not like Tommy. Not even a little. He seems like a grown man baby. He doesn’t at all seem to understand how privileged he is and he surely doesn’t appreciate it. I was more than a quarter into the book before I stopped sneering at Tommy and actually started to like him a little. His evo
