Notes on an Execution

A Novel

By: Danya Kukafka

Narrated by: Mozhan Marno, Jim Meskimen

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL • NEW YORK TIMES BEST CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR

“Defiantly populated with living women . . . beautifully drawn, dense with detail and specificity . . . Notes on an Execution is nuanced, ambitious and compelling.” —Katie Kitamura, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (Editors' Choice)

""A searing portrait of the complicated women caught in the orbit of a serial killer. . . . Compassionate and thought-provoking."" –BRIT BENNETT, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Half

Recommended by New York Times Book Review • Los Angeles Times • Washington Post • Entertainment Weekly • Esquire • Good Housekeeping • USA Today • Buzzfeed • Goodreads • Real Simple • Marie Claire • Rolling Stone • Business Insider • Bustle • PopSugar • The Millions • The Guardian • and many more!

In the tradition of Long Bright River and The Mars Room, a gripping and atmospheric work of literary suspense that deconstructs the story of a serial killer on death row, told primarily through the eyes of the women in his life—from the bestselling author of Girl in Snow.

Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what he’s done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. But Ansel doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood.

Through a kaleidoscope of women—a mother, a sister, a homicide detective—we learn the story of Ansel’s life. We meet his mother, Lavender, a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation; Hazel, twin sister to Ansel’s wife, inseparable since birth, forced to watch helplessly as her sister’s relationship threatens to devour them all; and finally, Saffy, the detective hot on his trail, who has devoted herself to bringing bad men to justice but struggles to see her own life clearly. As the clock ticks down, these three women sift through the choices that culminate in tragedy, exploring the rippling fissures that such destruction inevitably leaves in its wake.

Blending breathtaking suspense with astonishing empathy, Notes on an Execution presents a chilling portrait of womanhood as it simultaneously unravels the familiar narrative of the American serial killer, interrogating our system of justice and our cultural obsession with crime stories, asking readers to consider the false promise of looking for meaning in the psyches of violent men.

""Poetic and mesmerizing . . . Powerful, important, intensely human, and filled with a unique examination of tragedy, one where the reader is left with a curious emotion: hope."" —USA TODAY

“A profound and staggering experience of empathy that challenges us to confront what it means to be human in our darkest moments. . . . I relished every page of this brilliant and gripping masterpiece.""—ASHLEY AUDRAIN, New York Times bestselling author of The Push

Remarkable.

This story is beautiful, brutal and perfect. The writing is lyrical and moving, the characters round and ripe. I’m only sorry I can’t hear it again for the first time.

A great perspective

I thought this book was excellent. It starts out with Ansel who is 12 hrs away from being out to death. The story then twists and turns from the perspective of the women. The author did a great job.

A story told from the POV or side that’s almost always forgotten.

I loved that although this story is based on a serial killer, myself as the reader was able to hear the side of the woman that survived. I also really loved that the last thing you read is not about Ansel but about the where the woman that he murdered would be if he had never taken their lives.

Detailed & Fantastic

Loved!!! So detailed and vivid wish I could read/listen to it again for the first time.

pretty good, but sometimes hard to follow all the characters

was sometimes hard to keep storylines straight with so many characters, especially because it flipped back and forth between people and time periods.