Plonk Goes the Weasel
Reviews

#1
PREVIEW of Joan Del Monte’s new book in progress…
Somebody is adulterating saffron, the world’ most expensive spice, then stealing boats in San Pedro, California, to move it. Then the boats start getting blown up. A fisherman investigates, against a background of San Pedro’s ethnic enclaves, the muscular waterfront, and scenes from the life of the exotic, vagabond spice.

#2
Reviewed by: Terri L. Jenkins, Tennessee
This book is entertainment! It’s a fun romp through the ploys used to pay back an underhanded Hollywood ’big wheel’, Zoltan Diesel by name. (He’s called quite a few other names too.) If you enjoy seeing the little guy get even for once, (and watching a massive ego get deflated) then definitely order this book. It’s a great way to spend a couple of free evenings. Be prepared to argue with yourself over whom the real people are that the book’s characters must be based on. Del Monte’s got a gift for writing as people talk, not as the books say we should. Did you like Edward Abbey’s “The Monkey Wrench Gang”? Then you’ll enjoy vintage of ‘Plonk’.

Reviewed by Kathy Owens, Los Angeles, California
Great book about people in a Northern California town, and a Hollywood film company, who skipped out of town, then dogged hunt for wicked revenge against the film company. Joan Del Monte is a great storyteller with her characters and location in the redwoods and in Southern California that come alive on the pages. The reader is cheering on the townspeople with their use of intelligence and imagination to teach the director, producer and an actor a lesson they will never forget. This is book is a MUST read!

Reviewed by Vin D’Alimonte, Patchogue, New York
With the keen eye of an anthropologist and the lilt of a storyteller, Del Monte lays out the history and culture of Humboldt County, as distant from Beverly Hills in lifestyle as New York is from Oregon. The people, moviemakers and movie extras alike, are as dissimilar from their neighbors as the victims are from the perpetrators. The sleepy town sits in the shadow of the university campus, already providing the potential for and gown conflict. Only in Northern California style the academics are more like 60’s hippies and the townspeople, symbolized by the major, are allied with the logging community.

Reviewed by Mona Perez, Venice, California
This is a fast read. The mystery entails the plotting of group revenge against an outside file company, and the transformation from victims to avengers. What sets it apart is the deeply courteous attention Del Monte pays to her characters. The reaction of the lumber town to a local reggae concert is hilarious.

Reviewed by Mary Angel, Victorville, California
Plonk Goes the Weasel is a story of revenge engineered by the unlikely injured, using individual skills to score. The author is acutely aware of the infighting in small towns and the dialog verges on perfect. We know these people.

Reviewed by Alex Rosales, Marina del Rey, California
You’ll remember this Northern California town, with its dripping redwoods, its fog, its astonishing beauty, its pot growers, long after you’ve forgotten other current reading. The author delights in seeing, delights in listening, and delights in telling us the story.

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