A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of One of California's Most Notorious Killers

by Deborah Holt Larkin

The incredible story of a 1958 murder that ended with the last woman to ever be executed in California—a murder so twisted it seems ripped from a Greek tragedy.

Deborah Larkin was only ten years old when the quiet calm of her California suburb was shattered.  Thirty miles north, on a quiet November night in Santa Barbara, a pregnant nurse named Olga Duncan disappeared from her apartment.  The mystery deepens when it is discovered that Olga’s mother in-law—a deeply manipulative and deceptive woman—had been doing everything in her power to separate Olga and her son, Frank, prior to Olga’s disappearance.

From a forged annulment to multiple attempts to hire people to “get rid” of Olga, to a faked excoriation case, Elizabeth seemed psychopathically attached to her son. Yet she denied having anything to do with Olga’s disappearance with a smile.

But when Olga’s brutally beaten body is found in a shallow grave, apparently buried alive, a young DA makes it his mission to see that Elizabeth Duncan is brought to justice.  Adding a wrinkle to his efforts is the fact that Frank—himself a defense attorney—maintained his mother’s innocent to the end.

How does a young girl process such a crime along with the fear and disbelieve that rocked an entire community?  Decades later, Larkin is determined to revisit the case and bring the story of Olga herself to light.  Long overshadowed by the sensationalism and scandal of Elizabeth and Frank, A Lovely Girl seeks to reveal Olga as a woman in full.  Someone who was more than the twisted family that would ultimately ensnare her.

As we follow the heart-pounding drama of the case through Larkin's young eyes—her father was the court reporter—A Lovely Girl is by turns page-turning yet poingnant, and makes the reader reexamine how we handle fear, how we regard mental illness, and how we understand family as we carve our own path in a dangerous world.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, History, Crime, Audiobook, Memoir, Autobiography

527 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 4, 2022

Reviews

[Jeanette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Case and photos are 4 stars. The telling and POV of narration is barely 2 stars. Excess everything. Switching, minutia of endless unrelated criteria and overblown length.

[Reeca Elliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had way too many mundane details and not enough about the crime or the players in the crime. I understand the author’s father was a reporter and wrote about this crime in real time. But, it has a lot about the author and I would have much more liked it about the crime.

[Ken Kaplan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're a lover of true crime and magnificent writing, then A LOVELY GIRL by Deborah Holt Larkin is a must-read. Even if true crime is not your thing, this extraordinary book remains a must-read that you will find unforgettable. The story unfolds in the unique time of 1958 when American cars were huge, and gas was cheap. The bazaar, stranger-than-fiction murder of Olga Duncan, newly married and pregnant, seized the everyday life of the small town of Ventura, California, in a way never before seen and impossible to ever happen again. Around the corner, the 1960's waited with the Vietnam War, Bob Dylan, and Charles Manson, which would forever change the American landscape.

Told through the author's 10-year-old eyes. A LOVELY GIRL chronicles the Baby Boomer's early life before they took center stage and ended the post-WWII era of security and innocence. Larkin's poignant, often funny and ironic family life unfolds with vivid iconic details of a girl attempting to make sense of the gruesome Duncan murder. Her father, a locally renowned reporter covered the circus-like murder trial for Venture County Star Free Press. Her experiences intertwine with the courtroom and her father's reporting in a time when flash blubs popped in defendants' faces, and reporters had nearly unlimited access to everyone involved with the historic trial that resulted in the last woman to be executed in California's gas chamber.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing story circa 1950's Southern California murder. The author was ten when this occurred and she gives many details of current music, fads and tv shows of the era. Between chapters of the grisly and very graphic murder, she puts in humorous accounts of her growing up with a younger sister. Although the juxtaposition could be a bit jarring at times, her very engaging and interesting writing style more than compensated. I highly recommend this book. An added bonus was the many pictures she included at the end.

[Sara]

DNF. I’m both tired of these memoirs in disguise being marketed as true crime, and I don’t care about this author’s childhood in the least. Regardless of whatever happened to Olga Duncan, she definitely deserved to have her story told by anything better than this book.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a fan of true life crime books so was eagerly looking forward to this new one. When it first started out I became skeptical very quickly at the author's ability to remember conversations that happened over half a century ago. But she did talk about that in the preface. So I nearly stopped reading but am glad I kept going.

The author alternated chapters - one would be about the murder case and the next about her family. Well, the stories she told about her family were often laugh-out-loud funny. The stories about her father reminded me of the father in my favorite Christmas movie, A Christmas Story. He was funny, hardworking but not exactly a handyman about the house. There were even little asides in the chapters about the murder that were written in such a humorous way that I laughed out loud. The author is a really good writer - this was not your normal cut and dried, just the facts, ma'am (dum de dum dum! and that's a reference) kind of true crime book.

Highly recommend this book and hope to see more from Ms Holt Larkin.

[Kenna Smiley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Growing up in Ventura, I had always heard about Ma Duncan and, quite frankly, had nightmares often about this case. So fun to read after hearing the stories all my life. Also loved all the little Ventura details!

[Madeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have given this book a 4.5!
Fascinating story from a young girls perspective written 60+ years after a senseless crime.

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very excellent book! How does it end? Well you’ll just have to read it to find out.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book on the library shelf and, as a fan of true crime, I thought this sounded interesting. Murder, a possibly psychotic mother-in-law, and a potential conspiracy. There was a lot going for this. (Although, calling this a book about "one of California's most notorious killers" feels like a bit of a stretch, given how many prolific and notorious killers California has had.)

But the story is incredibly well written and interesting from start to finish. The story bounces back and forth between Debby, the author of this book, as a 10 year old child hearing about Olga's disappearance/murder as it unfolds and the people closely linked to the crime. So it feels actually mostly like literary nonfiction rather than a more factual retelling. It reads really well and does make you feel like you're right there, learning the facts of the case along with everyone else. Obviously, some liberties have been taken for the conversations that Debby was not actually present for or that are based on testimony in court.

Honestly, though, I thought the case was really interesting and I'm surprised that, given all the twists and turns in it, no one else has picked up on this case sooner to devote an entire podcast to or anything. Elizabeth Duncan is definitely a piece of work and I could see a good podcast really diving into her psychology. The people feel all fleshed out and seem to be real and interesting. Elizabeth Duncan is the most obvious one from the crime, but Debby's father, Bob Holt, is perhaps one of the most interesting. A local reporter, Bob makes it a point to be at every day of the trial, every hearing, and every sentencing. We see him as a confident, qualified writer as well as a less-than-handy father who knows next to nothing about fixing electronics and can be short tempered but well-meaning to his girls. Larkin wrote in the acknowledgements that this was a farewell to her father and I think that was beautifully portrayed. Of all the people in the story, he truly does feel like the main character, as he is the connecting link between Debby's perspective and the unfolding of Olga's murder.

This was really entertaining, engaging, and enjoyable. Definitely a surprise.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this book and it was a great read. First, the care and attention to the victim, Olga Duncan, was heartfelt. Maybe when we hear about crime or a murder, the victim can be forgotten, but not in this book. The story is told from the perspective of a daughter of a newspaper reporter covering investigation and subsequent murder trial of Elizabeth Duncan, the mother in law of Olga. I loved the way the dual story lines connected. This book is part true crime and a glimpse of Southern California in late 50’s. We also get to find out what happened to all the key players in the investigation and trial. I highly recommend!

[Kathleen Creedon · Rating 3 out of 5]

i feel like this book was so boring for no reason. it's an interesting case and an interesting connection to it, but there are just sooo many details and small scenes that just felt unnecessary. i normally gobble up true crime/mystery things, but this was such a slog

[Quiltmom14 · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an insane story of unreal horror; mommy issues carried to the extreme. The book is a combination of a memoir and tale of murder. Really well researched, well told and (since I listened to it) well narrated. Recommend.

[WM D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely girl was a good book. The book examines the murder of Olga Duncan and the process of trying to find out who killed her and why.

[Bettys Book Club · Rating 4 out of 5]

🚨 Attention true crime fans 🚨

This book stands out in a saturated genre because it’s part memoir, part true crime AND it’s set in the 1950s. Larkin takes a look back at the American judicial system and the political landscape around the death penalty in the 50s .

Here’s the gist of the case:

🤰Pregnant nurse, Olga Duncan, goes missing in November 1958 near Santa Barbara, California.

🙋🏻‍♂️ Her defense attorney husband, Frank, recently moved out of their apartment and moved back in with his mother. The last time he saw/spoke with Olga was 10 days before her disappearance.

👵🏻 Betty Duncan told her friend and Olga’s landlord that she hates Olga and doesn’t want her near her son Frank.

👨🏽‍🤝‍👨🏾 Betty claims that two Mexican men are blackmailing her because they are unhappy with her son’s defense of their relative. They claim that she hired them to kill Olga.

When the police find Olga’s body the truth comes out and let’s say things don’t end well for everyone involved.

In between the investigation and trial chapters, we get Larkin’s childhood POV of the case. Her father was the lead reporter on it for the Santa Barbara newspaper so the case was top of mind in their household, which shaped Larkin’s formative years.

My only gripe is I wanted MORE intel on Betty. What comes out about her in the trial is unbelievable. This woman, especially in the 50s, was like none other I’ve ever read. Larkin focuses on just the facts of the case, but I was dying to learn more about her.

I would love to read a follow up book that predates this murder on Betty’s life, children and MANY “loves.”

[Maggie Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I ended up DNFing this after reading a little more than 50%. It’s not a badly written book, but there are two completely different stories being told and it just didn’t work for me. This is written partly about the the case, how it was solved, prosecuted, and written about in the news, and then partly about the author’s childhood living in the area at the time with her family while her father reported on this. To be quite honest, this felt like more of an ode to the author’s family than it did a true crime book. There are so many memories she discusses that have nothing to do with the case at all, a lot of them center around her family’s lack of religion and growing up in a community that was judgmental of that, which are fine as their own separate story, but don’t fit into the true crime story as a whole. Those chapters seem to far outweigh the chapters about the actual case so it feels disjointed. I went in expecting to learn about the case, but more than 50% through I didn’t come away with any more information than I could get from a Google search. It just didn’t work for me at all as a story and every time I picked it up, I got frustrated that it wasn’t just cutting to the chase and sticking with just the facts of the case. The writing style also felt more like a fictional story-telling than a retelling of the facts, so that also just felt weird for what’s marketed as a non-fiction true crime book. This just wasn’t for me at all.

[Bill reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one gives a whole new meaning to the definition of a wicked mother-in-law. Elizabeth Duncan became incensed when her boy "Frankie" married a nurse and impregnated the young lady. Olga had moved to America from Canada and how dare the "foreigner" have the nerve to take away her son.
Bob Holt was the author's father and he wrote a weekly newspaper column. His material was of his everyday family life. Deborah Holt had a fascination for Nancy Drew mysteries and in 1958, the story of Olga's disappearance made the headlines. Holt was assigned to cover the case and, eventually, the trial and its' outcome.
The chapters alternate between Deborah's childhood and Olga's abduction and murder. Her father had a copy of Cell 2455 Death Row, written by Caryl Chessman while awaiting execution in their home state of California. He believed that the Red Light Bandit was guilty but doubts remain more than sixty years later.
The courtroom testimony is beyond strange as Ms. Duncan sparred with both the judge and prosecutor with several unintentionally funny moments. The woman had led an adventurous life, to say the least.
I will leave the conclusion for the reader to discover. A Lovely Girl was another of my one long morning reads.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never heard of this case and I’m so glad I read this because it definitely was a wild one! We follow the case, but we also follow along the authors POV as a child at the time, her father was a reporter on the case, which was interesting! I appreciate the different take on a traditional true crime novel, but I did find myself preferring the chapters that were following the details of the investigation. But if you are a true crime fan, I would still definitely recommend!

[Claire P · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhere in this book is a charming memoir of a harried newspaperman and his exploits with his unorthodox family. What this is not is a true crime book about a horrific murder for hire and the last woman executed in the state of California.
Definitely not for me, although the photos and family stories I found to be worth a look.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 - Only because I'm just too stingy with my five star reviews.

[Hailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A true crime novel told by flipping back and forth between the events of the investigation and trial and the experience of the author who lived the story through the eyes of her reporter father, this one was incredibly interesting. I had never heard of this case, but it was unbelievable and tragic. Such a true loss, and makes you think about just how far people will really go. 4 stars!

[Laura]

I DNF this one at 10%. I didn't care too much about the inner musings of the author's life. The whole sneezing with her mom at the restaurant just grossed me out and completely took me out of the book.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but a challenging read

The chapters written from 10 year old Debby's perspective are hard to read. She uses vocabulary of a 10 year old intentionally but writes with insight of 60 yr old - it's weird

The dialogue attributed to all the other characters in the book must be complete fiction. Almost all the men are dead, how could she know exactly what was said?

The story of Olga's murder was very intriguing. Olga's MIL was evil. Olga's husband, Frank, behaved reprehensibly and I can't forgive him. Also interesting how Miranda ruling changed law enforcement

[Mrs. Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many Goodreaders enjoyed the memoir of her pre-teen years which Debra Holt Larkin interleaved with her true-crime account, A Lovely Girl. I did not, and in fact was put off by the cheerful description of her father’s sometimes reckless and invariably obscene parenting - somehow incongruous in a book about a mother’s reckless and horribly self-centered parenting. That said, I thought Larkin did a good job of presenting the facts and allowing the reader to draw his own conclusion. Elizabeth Duncan’s psychopathy becomes increasingly obvious with her every interaction with others. Although given more attention than is common in books about murder-for-hire, the two actual killers remain so opaque that even at the end of their lives, neither can explain his own motivation for committing so awful an act for so small a reward. And the most incomprehensible person in the whole wretched affair is of course its lynchpin, Frank Duncan. If a fictional character were to behave as he did in real life the writing would be rejected as simply not believable.
A Lovely Girl would probably evoke memories in anybody who lived in the Santa Barbara area during that period (late 50s, early 60s) and doubtless will appeal to true crime fans regardless of where they live.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. This book was interesting because I grew up in Santa Barbara - where a lot of the story took place - and I recognized many of the areas the author wrote about. Olga Duncan, a pregnant nurse, disappeared from her apartment one evening in the late 1950s. Although she was married, her husband lived with his mother in town, and he claimed to have no idea what had happened to her. It turns out his mother, Elizabeth had some sort of pathological attachment to him and had been threatening Olga for a long time. There was also a lot in her past that no one knew about. The chapters about the crime alternated with chapters from the author's point of view. Her father was the main reporter on the trial, and Deborah was fascinated by it. At first, I read every chapter, but I soon found I wasn't especially interested in what happened in Deborah's private life, so I skipped those chapters. I understand why she included those personal chapters - her life was a snapshot of a typical middle class life in the late 1950s, and her father was deeply involved in the case - but they didn't really add much to the story and could have been edited down.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the most unique books I’ve ever read, and I really enjoyed it even though it was the true story of a senseless tragedy. The story of the murder of Olga Duncan is told through the eyes of the author and her interactions with her father who is a newspaper reporter. Half of the book is the horrific murder of Olga and trial of the perpetrators. The reader gets a sense of who these people are and their personalities. The other half of the book is the humorous family dynamics of the author, her colorful father, sister, and mother. I will admit I laughed out loud at the dialogue between the family members. The author was very skilled at choosing words and details that illustrate her family and their home life. It may seem contradictory to the main topic of her writing, which is a murder but she explains in the final pages her reasons for how the book is put together. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I agree with several commenters here that this is a work of fiction. The case of Elizabeth Duncan is gripping and disturbing, the family anecdotes the author throws in are not. The book could have been half the length and much more readable if all the author’s ramblings had been left out. She narrates in detail other people’s thoughts, feelings and actions, which she could not possibly have known. We get to know a lot about her family. I’m sure these asides were brought in to show that they were normal people experiencing a very unusual event. Unfortunately, none of her family is shown in a good light-her father is rude, loud, obnoxious and impatient, her mother is ineffectual and her sister is an insufferable brat. There are probably better source materials about this case out there. Spend your time looking for them rather than reading this overblown nonsense.

[Sandy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope. It’s a pet peeve of mine when non-fiction books write what people did and thought in situations where there is no way they could possibly know. And I don’t mean speculate, like “she was probably thinking…”,I mean write it as though it’s what actually happened. I got as far as the scene of what happened right before the murder, her friends leave, so the victim is all alone, and my golly if we aren’t told all of her thoughts at the time, her exact movements, and the conversation she has with her unborn child. Things that are unknowable, pure fiction. She could have written it as a fictional book inspired by the true story if she wanted to write imaginary scenes to dramatize the narrative, but it’s disingenuous to sell this as “true crime”.

[Lord Bathcanoe of Snark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is marketed as a true crime book, but it's more like a novel based on a true crime. If you are ok with the invented dialogue and the composite characters then the story is pretty compelling.
In between the chapters telling the story of the crime the writer also gives us chapters reminiscing about her childhood during this period. I found those rather humdrum to be honest, and began to skip them completely. Without those chapters I would have given the book 4 stars.

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was a mixture of "a Christmas story" (movie) and a true crime novel. I don't get who this is for. One scene would be of a pair of hired murderers confessing to a brutal murder, and in the next scene the father would be having comical trouble with his new lawn mower.