A Dangerous Woman: The Life of Florence Gould (St. Martin’s Press)
Author Susan Ronald in conversation with Journalist Frances Dinkelspiel

This engrossing biography introduces us to San Francisco born millionaire socialite expatriate Florence Gould: part grifter, part arts patron, 100% self-invented American. After hooking the already-married railroad heir Frank Jay Gould, Florence guided his millions into investments in hotels and casinos, creating the first luxury hotel/casino group in France. During the Nazi occupation of France, she took scores of German lovers, traded with the Nazis, and hosted a controversial salon for collaborators and underground Résistants alike. This is a colorful and damning portrait of a woman who could have been a character from the great literary works of Ibsen or Chekhov.

Susan Ronald was born in Los Angeles but has lived most of her adult life in Europe - six years in France and over twenty-five years in England. History and translating it into commercially viable projects has been her lifeblood for the past thirty years. A Dangerous Woman is her seventh published book. She is currently writing The Conde Nast Story: The Man and his Empire for St. Martin's Press and a series of novels set at turn-of-the-twentieth century London.

Frances Dinkelspiel is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of the news site Berkeleyside. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Daily Beast, People magazine and elsewhere. Her first book, Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California, was a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller and chosen as a best book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Northern California Independent Booksellers’ Association. Her second book, Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California, was a New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle bestseller and was named a best wine book of the year by the Wall Street Journal and Food and Wine magazine.