Frances Dinkelspiel's Books

Tangled Vines

Greed, Murder, Obsession, and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California

By: Frances Dinkelspiel

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Tangled Vines

Greed, Murder, Obsession, and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California

By: Frances Dinkelspiel

On October 12, 2005, a massive fire broke out in the Wines Central wine warehouse in Vallejo, California. Within hours, the flames had destroyed 4.5 million bottles of California's finest wine worth more than $250 million, making it the largest destruction of wine in history. The fire had been deliberately set by a passionate oenophile named Mark Anderson, a skilled con man and thief with storage space at the warehouse who needed to cover his tracks. With a propane torch and a bucket of gasoline-soaked rags, Anderson annihilated entire California vineyard libraries as well as bottles of some of the most sought-after wines in the world. Among the priceless bottles destroyed were 175 bottles of Port and Angelica from one of the oldest vineyards in California made by Frances Dinkelspiel's great-great grandfather, Isaias Hellman, in 1875. Sadly, Mark Anderson was not the first to harm the industry. The history of the California wine trade, dating back to the 19th Century, is a story of vineyards with dark and bloody pasts, tales of rich men, strangling monopolies, the brutal enslavement of vineyard workers and murder. Five of the wine trade murders were associated with Isaias Hellman's vineyard in Rancho Cucamonga beginning with the killing of John Rains who owned the land at the time. He was shot several times, dragged from a wagon and left off the main road for the coyotes to feed on. In her new book, Frances Dinkelspiel looks beneath the casually elegant veneer of California's wine regions to find the obsession, greed and violence lying in wait. Few people sipping a fine California Cabernet can even guess at the Tangled Vines where its life began.

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Page Count

319

Publisher

St. Martin's Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1250033217

ISBN 13

9781250033215

Towers of Gold

How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California

By: Frances Dinkelspiel

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Towers of Gold

How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California

By: Frances Dinkelspiel

Isaias Hellman, a Jewish immigrant, arrived in California in 1859 with very little money in his pocket and his brother Herman by his side. By the time he died, he had effectively transformed Los Angeles into the modern metropolis we see today. In Frances Dinkelspiel's groundbreaking history, the early days of California are seen through the life of a man who started out as a simple store owner only to become California's premier money-man of the late 19th and early 20th century. Growing up as a young immigrant, Hellman quickly learned the use to which "capital" could be put, founding LA's Farmers and Merchants Bank, that city's first successful bank, and transforming Wells Fargo into one of the West's biggest financial institutions. He invested money with Henry Huntington to build trolley lines, lent Edward Doheney the funds that led him to discover California's huge oil reserves, and assisted Harrison Gary Otis in acquiring full ownership of the Los Angeles Times. Hellman led the building of Los Angeles' first synagogue, the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, helped start the University of Southern California and served as Regent of the University of California. His influence, however, was not limited to Los Angeles. He controlled the California wine industry for almost twenty years and, after San Francisco's devastating 1906 earthquake and fire, calmed the financial markets there in order to help that great city rise from the ashes. With all of these accomplishments, Isaias Hellman almost single-handedly brought California into modernity. Ripe with great historical events that filled the early days of California such as the Gold Rush and the San Francisco earthquake, Towers of Gold brings to life the transformation of California from a frontier society whose economy was driven by the barter of hides and exchange of gold dust into a vibrant state with the strongest economy in the nation.

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Page Count

385

Publisher

Macmillan + ORM

Published Date

ISBN 10

1429959592

ISBN 13

9781429959599

Tangled Vines

Greed, Murder, Obsession, and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California

By: Frances Dinkelspiel

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Tangled Vines

Greed, Murder, Obsession, and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California

By: Frances Dinkelspiel

Noted California historian rips the oh-so-laid-back label off the California wine trade to show the violent and obsessive world underneath

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319

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

1250033225

ISBN 13

9781250033222

Towers of Gold

How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California

By: Frances Dinkelspiel

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Towers of Gold

How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California

By: Frances Dinkelspiel

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Page Count

385

Publisher

Macmillan + ORM

Published Date

ISBN 10

1429959592

ISBN 13

9781429959599

The Indigo Necklace

By: Frances Kirkwood Crane

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The Indigo Necklace

By: Frances Kirkwood Crane

LIEUTENANT PAT ABBOTT and his lovable but slightly rattle-brained wife, Jean, have become about the most popular couple in murder fiction today. In The Indigo Necklace, Frances Crane takes them to New Orleans, where a huge wartime population has overflowed into the famous French quarter, steeped in tradition and old-world ceremony. When murder is done amidst these incongruous elements, it takes ingenious sleuthing indeed to unravel the crime! Pat Abbott and his Jean are paying guests of a proud old Creole family, luxuriating in the charm of their surroundings, when Jean discovers a body at her very doorstep. Before the Lieutenant unmasks the murderer, the Abbotts meet a fascinating array of aristocrats and scoundrels, including a police chief, drawn from life, who will become a permanent member of the Abbott troupe.

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Page Count

310

Publisher

Pickle Partners Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1787204383

ISBN 13

9781787204386

The Indigo Necklace

By: Frances Crane

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The Indigo Necklace

By: Frances Crane

In wartime New Orleans, a crime-solving couple looks into an heiress’s death in a tale of “family skeletons, bittersweet romance, and [deft] sleuthing” (Saturday Review). Marine Lt. Pat Abbott is currently stateside, posted in New Orleans, where the French Quarter is packed with wartime crowds seeking a bit of entertainment. But when Jean finds a body at the home of the prominent old Creole family with whom the couple is staying, Pat must return to his civilian role of private investigator as the pair become entangled with an assortment of aristocrats and quirky characters . . . Praise for the Pat and Jean Abbott Mysteries “One of the more interesting married teams of detectives . . . A sort of globetrotting Nick and Nora.” —Thrilling Detective “Pleasant reading.” —The New York Times “[A] lively, well-plotted and mystifying case.” —Saturday Review

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Page Count

244

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1504075412

ISBN 13

9781504075411

Book's by Frances Dinkelspiel

Tangled Vines

Tangled Vines

Towers of Gold

Towers of Gold

Tangled Vines

Tangled Vines

Towers of Gold

Towers of Gold

The Indigo Necklace

The Indigo Necklace

The Indigo Necklace

The Indigo Necklace

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