Author Talk: A Lovely Girl

Join local author Deborah Holt Larkin for a discussion of A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of One of California's Most Notorious Killers, her stranger-than-fiction true crime story joined with a personal account of its impact. 

Author 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. 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—Olga's deeply manipulative and deceptive mother-in-law—is brought to justice. Decades later, Larkin is determined to revisit the case and bring the story of Olga herself to light. Long overshadowed by sensationalism and scandal, 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.

Come to learn about this gripping true crime, and the path Deborah took to bring it to the page.