A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan & the Trial of California’s Most Notorious Killer

In this excellent debut, educator Larkin revisits the case of Elizabeth Duncan, who was convicted of the 1958 murder of her daughter-in-law and was the last woman to be executed in California before the Supreme Court suspended the death penalty in 1972. Larkin, who was 10 at the time, depicts Duncan as a con woman who married as many as 11 husbands starting at age 15, whose obsession with her son, Frank, spiraled into hatred for his wife, Olga, a Santa Barbara nurse. Before Olga disappeared from her apartment, Duncan was openly trying to separate her from Frank. When Olga’s beaten body turned up in a shallow grave, an ambitious DA set out to convict Duncan of hiring two men to kidnap and murder Olga, who was seven months pregnant. The author’s father was the lead reporter covering the trial, and this account is also a loving tribute to him. Larkin writes beautifully about her own coming-of-age, sibling rivalry, and pet bird, intermingled with the details of the horrific case. Captivated by her father’s front-page stories on the trial, she brought the newspaper to class for show-and-tell and spent hours listening to her parents discuss the case over dinner. As a result, Larkin became a lifelong true crime fan. This page-turner is not to be missed. Agent: Charlotte Gusay, Gusay Literary. (Oct.)