Publishers Weekly
★ 08/29/2022
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.)
The San Diego Union-Tribune
"[Deborah] has penned a meticulously researched and deeply personal page-turner that is a suitable tribute to both the victim and to her father."
Booklist
" In writing about what proved to be the most memorable and formative years of her life, Larkin portrays her Scout-Atticus Finch love for her father and for justice in general. The book honors Olga and her community and shows the impact that horrific crime can have on all those who bear witness."
Booklist
" In writing about what proved to be the most memorable and formative years of her life, Larkin portrays her Scout-Atticus Finch love for her father and for justice in general. The book honors Olga and her community and shows the impact that horrific crime can have on all those who bear witness."
Library Journal
09/01/2022
In this debut, Larkin, an elementary school principal, tells the story of the murder of Olga Duncan and how her death rocked her California suburb. A unique feature of this narrative is that the author was 10 years old at the time of the murder and is able to reconstruct the story based on her memories, community interviews, and the articles her journalist father wrote while covering the trial for the local paper. This true crime story centers around Olga, a pregnant nurse who disappeared in 1958 and was later found beaten to death and buried. Olga's mother-in-law became a primary suspect due to her efforts to separate Olga and her son, Frank, including hiring hit men. Frank, a defense attorney, insisted upon his mother's innocence, and through the dogged efforts of a new district attorney, the mother-in-law was tried, convicted, and ultimately became the last woman ever executed in the state of California. VERDICT Readers will be drawn to Larkin's first-person narrative of the events as well as her reconstruction of this tragic true-crime story.—Mattie Cook
