Danya Kukafka, the bestselling author of GIRL IN SNOW, returns with NOTES ON AN EXECUTION, an emotionally resonant and grippingly taut literary thriller written in the vein of LONG BRIGHT RIVER and REAL EASY.

“Inmate, state your name and number.” Ansel Packer, 999631, is 12 hours away from his execution, his punishment for the murders of three teenage girls in the summer of 1990. We know from the start that Ansel is guilty --- everything about him, from his time on death row to his quiet cockiness, confirms it --- but he seems to feel that his story is not over yet, that the world need only hear his philosophy on life to understand how he arrived at this moment. Of course, in true jailbird fashion, Ansel has a plan to escape his sentencing: a female guard he has charmed and swindled has promised him an escape route. But even so, these hours prove to be a time of introspection for Ansel; as he recounts the story of his life, he cannot help but think of the women who shaped him.

In alternating chapters, Kukafka introduces each of these ladies on their own terms: Lavender, Ansel’s teenage mother; Saffron Singh, the homicide detective who brought Ansel to justice; and Hazel, Ansel’s sister-in-law. Through Lavender we witness an abusive, predatory marriage, the foundation for Ansel’s birth. Lavender was wooed by Ansel’s older father when she was only 16, and within six months she was neatly imprisoned on his farm in upstate New York. Although Lavender tried to shield her young son from her husband’s cruelty, already we see the signs that something is not quite right with Ansel. He has a near preternatural intelligence, and on one occasion he emerges bloodstained from the woods surrounding their home clutching a beheaded chipmunk.

But Kukafka does not rely on these sensationalized, textbook qualities of serial killers alone. Instead she walks us, step by harrowing step, through Lavender’s abuse, gazing unflinchingly upon Ansel’s childhood and that of his infant brother until finally Lavender sacrifices herself to save her sons. What she intends as a supreme moment of kindness, the greatest possible display of a mother’s love, Ansel perceives only as abandonment.

Later, as a child in a foster home, Ansel meets a young girl named Saffron. Ansel is the preteen heartthrob of the foster home --- handsome, introspective and enticing with his tragic background. But the closer Saffron gets to Ansel, the more she sees that his stoicism and effortless charm are masking something much darker. She is the first person to witness his own budding cruelty, the way he cannot emote like the children around him, even as they nurture their own hurts, betrayals and abandonments. Her interactions with him come to shape her future as she exits the foster care system and, learning of a series of disappearances nearby, turns her life around to enter the police force.

Finally, we meet Hazel, the less beautiful, less intelligent half of a pair of twins who is always second fiddle to her sister, Jenny. But when Jenny brings home a handsome, quiet boy from college, Hazel starts to sense that she has finally won the silent competition between them, even though she cannot explain how. Jenny tells her sister in a hushed whisper that her boyfriend, Ansel, cannot feel, but whatever he has for her --- if it cannot be called love --- is powerful, all-consuming and possessive. Like Saffron, Hazel senses that something is off about Ansel, which he tries desperately to bury under his philosophical musings about good and evil and his magnetic charm.

Between each woman’s story, we return to Ansel, who is awaiting the grim reaper in his cell. We already know that he cannot be trusted, but Kukafka writes him with such searing intensity that it becomes quite easy to fall for him in this most vulnerable of moments. And yet, through the eyes of the women closest to him, we cannot ignore the haunting, horrifying portrait of evil that they paint of him. Throughout, Kukafka distills brief snapshots into Ansel’s Theory, a five-notebook missive on his philosophy of life --- a theory that there is no such thing as good or evil, only memory and choice, what has happened to us and who we choose to be. The Theory, in Ansel’s hands, is intoxicating, and Kukafka draws on the popularity and proliferance of true crime dramas and documentaries to force her readers to ask, “What really makes this man tick?” But the punchline is that it doesn’t matter. Only Ansel’s actions do.

NOTES ON AN EXECUTION is, at its heart, a portrait of an evil man wrapped in even more detailed portraits of the women drawn into his orbit. But to leave the novel here would be a disservice to Kukafka’s genius; this surface-level read is only half of what the book does. In drawing us into Ansel’s life and the ripples he has caused in the lives of his mother, sister-in-law and victims, she confronts some of the hardest-hitting questions about our fascination with crime: Why are we obsessed with men who kill? Why do we romanticize them and their actions? And why, in the end, do we almost never think about or discuss the women left in a killer’s wake?

If you have already read GIRL IN SNOW, you know that Kukafka writes gorgeous, spellbinding prose, distilling huge, complicated themes into crystalline moments of deep, painful truths. And if you haven’t, don’t miss the chance to discover her with NOTES ON AN EXECUTION, a vital addition to the suspense genre and to the larger conversation about violent crime.

Some excerpts from the longer review I posted on http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com/review.html?id=11654

While the title might suggest a detached, even clinical, approach to an execution, the book itself is far from either. The person under sentence is a multiple killer and he does indeed write some notes about his final day on death row, but he finds it difficult to remain clinically detached, as who wouldn't?...

He does not have all that much to say along the way as the bulk of the novel is focussed on three women - his mother, the twin sister of one of his victims, and the woman detective who is finally instrumental in his arrest. Still he is the only character speaking in the first person and addressing the reader directly. Serial-killer novels often concentrate on an attempt to understand causation or motivation of the killer. His victims are generally reduced to the generic type their killer prefers and remain somehow abstract. The most regrettable specimens of the genre could be called the Jack the Rippers - those that linger lovingly on the peculiarities of the killer's obsession to the point where they can be seen as a kind of toxic porn....

Thus the author has properly taken a far from simple approach to her subject. But readers may feel either confused or dissatisfied with the final result. As is the case with other serial killer books, Ansel's three victims , known as the Girls, are only loosely brought into focus. Another issue central to many books in the genre is that of capital punishment itself, which is frequently defended in the United States as affording either retribution or closure to those who loved the victim. ...

Thus the author has properly taken a far from simple approach to her subject. But readers may feel either confused or dissatisfied with the final result. As is the case with other serial killer books, Ansel's three victims , known as the Girls, are only loosely brought into focus. Another issue central to many books in the genre is that of capital punishment itself, which is frequently defended in the United States as affording either retribution or closure to those who loved the victim. ...

Because all of these questions are worthwhile and important, I confess to disappointment at the conclusion. It is almost as though the author, realizing that she had raised too many issues, decided simply to write her way into an ending that resolved none of them, shifting them off to the reader to deal with. That's all very well for a text designed to provoke heated argument in a discussion group, but it ducks responsibility in a work of fiction and leaves the reader feeling unfulfilled.

Ansel Packer is set to be executed in twelve hours, but how did he get here? The answers are revealed through the stories of several important women in his life and also, Ansel himself as he awaits his fate. An interesting concept for a novel that I really enjoyed, however I didn’t care for most of the characters and that brought my rating of the book down a bit. Regardless of your stance on the death penalty, this book gives you an uncomfortable look at what it’s like to count down your last hours. This was a solid 3 star read for me.

Trigger warnings: Physical abuse, child abandonment, animal abuse, some graphic scenes, trauma
Notes on an Execution is unlike any book I have read before. This is the story of Ansel Packer who goes through a major trauma as a child turns into a serial killer and has only 12 hours to live. The author takes us on his journey through the eyes of the family of the women he has killed. Everything happens in the back so it's not too graphic of a read.
This novel is chilling, atmospheric, gripping but at the same time sad. It raises several questions if trauma is the only reason some people behave the way they do or its already ingrained them in some way. It is not an easy book to read but once I started it I could not stop.

Ansel Parker is on death row, and has his scheduled execution date. Ansel has lived his life thinking he was smarter than everyone else and always looking for a way out of situations, never really finding stability. Childhood trauma changed Ansel forever. The story flips between past and present covering Ansel's’ life. Lavender is Ansel’s mother, who had him at a very young age, and endured more than most. Lavenders story is mostly told from the past and provides explanation into Ansel's childhood. Above all Lavender loved Ansel dearly, and tried to do what she always thought was best with limited resources and education. Hazel is Ansel's sister in law, and she has never really cared for Ansel. Something about Ansel never sat right with Hazel, and she always worried about her sister being with him. Saffy is a detective who has a connection to Ansel. Saffy has spent most of her career trying to find 3 missing girls who vanished under strange circumstances.. Saffy won’t stop until she finds the girls or finds out what happened to them, but will she find out that person is someone she had a horrific past with.
What I liked about this book was that you know who Ansel is from the beginning, but you want to figure out why, and what led him to death row. I kept wanting to read to ultimately find out what happened and why Ansel turned into the monster and manipulator he became.

Thank you Scene of the Crime, William Morrow Books, and NetGalley for this ARC

Notes on an Execution tells the story of a serial killer with 12 hours to live, but through the eyes of the women affected most by his decisions—his mother, his wife’s twin, and the police detective who knew him as a child. Ansel is guilty, there is no question about it, but how have his decisions affected those around him and what led him to become what he has.

The women's stories, and the fallout from his actions, are the focus, rather than Ansel’s psyche or an attempt to justify what has happened.

It's a different look at an execution story and one definitely worth reading.

This is a beautifully written novel about a very difficult subject. It takes us through the last 24 hours as Ansel Packer awaits his execution as a serial killer. The difference in this story is that it focuses on all the women Ansel affected by his actions. Starting with his mother who left him and an abusive husband in order to save him and his baby brother. Then the other girls he shared a foster home with as a child--one who became the woman who investigates his crimes and one who became a victim. We also read about his wife and his niece as well. the prose is beautiful and the story heartbreaking yet powerful. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Trigger warnings: murder, domestic violence, child abuse, capital punishment.

We need to talk about Saffron, a woman who is breaking career barriers, yet haunted by her early life in foster care.

Ansel Packer sits on death row and counts down the hours to his death by lethal injection, but the power of Notes on an Execution is in the stories of the women whose lives Packer impacted. Saffron is a rising New York State police detective who knows Packer from their time together in foster care. She juggles her directives from supervisors while her gut tells her she knows more. Another interesting character is Blue, Packer's niece who befriends him, thinking Packer is a long-lost uncle.

An intriguing story with many discussion topics. Highly recommended.

I am predicting some big awards for this book. It really was like nothing I have ever read before, and well written. I really want to say it was a beautiful book, but find it hard to say with the subject matter. Maybe it wasn’t beautiful but more compelling, real and literary piece of art.
To have such a story told from the perspective of the killer, the mother, the childhood friend, a family member and inadvertently from the victims, really gives a full 360° view. There was no sensationalizing and bringing celebrity to the murderer, and no brutal blood bath for the victims. The real horror in the story is the effect the crimes had on the victims family. This is not focused on enough in books. They are the survivors who often live with the guilt and shame of outliving their loved one. It’s raw and heartbreaking.
The writer did a brilliant job creating Ansel. He is every symptom or characteristic of a narcissistic psychopath. He has the abandonment, Foster care, animal abuse and even a head injury, all which are thought to contribute to psychopathic tendencies. Throw in the good looks, he is a regular Ted Bundy.
The countdown to the execution really added the suspense. I really couldn’t take my eyes off the book, waiting to see if he would live, and who would show up for the show.
This may be my favorite book of 2022. Definitely top 3.

Contemplative, insightful and so much more.
In a word this book is brilliant. The writing is lyrical and structure is perfect. The multiple POV's are used expertly to tell the story that goes way beyond the standard serial killer story. Themes such as the effectiveness of capital punishment and the effect it has on elevating the perpetrator's name in the public's conscience, why do we remember the killers name more than the names of most of the victims? Another theme is nature vs nurture and the questions those living in the periphery of a killer ask themselves like "what did I miss?" or "What could I have done".
This is a story that will stay with me for quite a while. The characters are all so real it almost reads like non-fiction. It will take a lot for another book to take its place at the top of my 'best of year' list and it's only the end of January!

Thank you to William Morrow/Harper Collins Publishers for gifting me an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley to review. This work of literary suspense was certainly thought provoking. A serial killer awaits his execution, and as he counts down the hours to his death, the story of his life is told through three women: his mother, his sister-in-law, and a police detective. This novel is an attempt to explore the American obsession with serial killers, so if you're someone who likes crime podcasts or episodes of Dateline, check this one out.

This book had many different layers as it wove these stories together. It was such a well written book. I found Saffy’s POV to be the one I liked being in the most. This book really made me think.

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐗𝐄𝐂𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 by Danya Kukafka perfectly hit one of my reading sweet spots: literary suspense. In Kakafka’s second novel she artfully deconstructs the life of Ansel Packer, a serial killer facing the last twelve hours of his life. Hour by hour, and later minute by minute, the reader is given a glimpse of what’s in Packer’s head, how he wants to be remembered, and what he did to end up on death row. For that part of the story we hear from three women in his life: Lavender, his mother, Hazel, the sister of one of his victims, and Saffy, the police detective who long suspected Ansel’s guilt. Each woman holds part of the story that helps to shed light on why Packer killed four women and his impact on their own lives.⁣
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Kukafka did an amazing job layering everyone’s story into a cohesive whole that was powerfully gripping, incredibly sad, and eerily real. I liked her debut, 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘚𝘯𝘰𝘸, but feel like 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘌𝘹𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 rose to a whole other level. I will forever read anything Kukafka writes. If this book isn’t already on your TBR list, please add it. Now!
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Thanks to @williammorrowbooks for an electronic copy of #notesonanexecution.⁣
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Ansel Parker is on death row and scheduled to die in 12 hours. We're told his backstory through women from his life. There are so many glowing reviews for this one so I had really high expectations for this one. While I liked it - I didn't love it. I did think it was well written and while most seem to really connect with it - I wasn't one. so its probably just me. I'm not sure if the author was wanting us to feel sympathetic for Ansel but I don't . I feel like this is a book you'll either love or like so pick it up and give it a try. Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

There's so much to like here. Multiple POVs and serial killers. Parker just wants to be understood, even though he doesnt understand himself. The POVs from the women are definitely the better of the storylines. Definitely recommend

What a fantastically written story. Angel Packer is on death row, getting closer and closer to his scheduled execution. Angelia a serial killer. But that is not the real story here. The real story belongs to the women whose lives he touched, good and bad.

Kukafka has a great way of describing the thoughts and emotions of each character so that the reader can conceptualize them in unique ways. I enjoyed the countdown aspect of storytelling along with the shifts between characters and timelines. Those who are drawn to the psychology of criminal behavior will likely enjoy the insight into the thought processes and experiences of Ansel from childhood into adulthood. I felt that the characters developed nicely and remained solid throughout the novel. The way that Ansel's story is told by both himself and the women in his life provides a nice balance in that the reader is left to objectively observe and try to understand what motivates Ansel's behavior. Overall, an interesting read!

Spoiler free review - I received an advanced review copy of this book.
The book took me a while to finish - not because it wasn't good, but because of time, and life.
This book jumps back and forth between multiple timelines and multiple characters. I personally wanted a bit "more" to happen with the ending, but I still think it ended well.
CW/TW: I am not one that has very many triggers, so I can't really say specifically what trigger/content warnings there are. However, I would probably say domestic and child abuse, animal cruelty, and obviously murder.
3.5 rounded up to a 4. Would recommend to my friends that are into this genre.

Notes on an Execution, by Danya Kukafka, is a stunning novel that does two things: It takes the reader down the rabbit hole of a psychopath’s mind as he awaits execution for multiple murders, and, more importantly, it illuminates the lives and dreams of the female victims of said murderer.
The structure of the novel is brilliant as it draws the reader in immediately with the death row musings of a man who is 12 hours away from his scheduled execution in a Texas prison.
Then it probes his past—nature vs. nurture?—as his Theory evolves, in which he explains that “morality is not fixed. It is fluid, ever-changing.”
The larger portion of this novel examines the development of girls to women, foster children to adults unprepared for independence, with all the heartbreak of parental failures and pitfalls in the foster system, victims and survivors in a world where “evil hides, sly and elusive, in the corners.” We cheer for the survivors and their success in adulthood, and our hearts ache for those who lose their way or perish.
The prose is exquisite, with passages that are evocative and carry great insight and gravity with a few carefully chosen words. This is a compelling profound novel that I will remember for a long time, and I recommend it to readers who appreciate literary suspense and wise insight into the good and evil in all of us.

Thank you to Scene of the Crime and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

This was such an interesting perspective into the life and mind of a serial killer. It basically took you down the path of why he did what he did and how it ultimately shaped him as a person. The stories were told from the unique perspectives of three very different women across paths with at some point in his life (his mother, his ex-wife’s sister and a childhood acquaintance). The three character’s stories pulled you in immediately and were interesting by themselves. This was a well-written fast paced story that is also very thought provoking.