Mission Beach resident Deborah Holt Larkin’s debut book, “A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of One of California’s Most Notorious Killers,” is set against the backdrop of iconic 1950s small-town family life, is a true story of a bizarre murder plot, bumbling killers, and the last woman ever executed in California. This scandalous 1958 murder case grabbed the imagination of the entire country.

The author will be giving a talk about the book at the Pacific Beach Library at 4 p.m. on Aug. 23.

“A Lovely Girl” was released by Pegasus Books in October 2022, but the story began well over 60 years ago when Olga Duncan vanished from her Santa Barbara apartment on Nov. 17, 1958.

“The discovery of her body a month later on a lonely road near my home was a pivotal moment in my young life,” Larkin said. “I was 10 years old. My father, a crime reporter for the local newspaper, covered the story of the investigation and sensational trial.

“I had a constant source of information from my father’s newspaper articles about the murder and his never-ending monologue around the house detailing the bizarre Ma Duncan case. I became obsessed with this true crime story.

“Because the tragedy of Olga Duncan had such an impact on me, it has rippled through my life and shadowed me since childhood,” Larkin said. “I was determined to tell Olga’s story. It took me nine years to research and write ‘A Lovely Girl,’ and another two years to find an agent and New York publisher (no easy feat for an “older” first-time author!). The book alternates chapters of a thoroughly researched true crime procedural with a poignant, coming-of-age memoir.”

The result is described in a Publishers Weekly Starred Review: “Larkin writes beautifully about her coming of age intermingled with details of the horrific case… This page-turner is not to be missed.”

Larkin is a former teacher and school principal at Julian Elementary School in Julian. She holds a bachelor’s degree in American history and literature from the University of California at Davis and studied creative writing at the University of California at San Diego. She has written stories about the crime, which were published in Newsweek, Crime Reads, and Writers Digest.

“A Lovely Girl” has been optioned for film rights, and it is in development for a limited TV series on a streaming platform.