"This novel is defiantly populated with living women . . . Kukafka evokes the disarming fog of grief, its wild illogic, its transformative power. . . . Notes on an Executio n is nuanced, ambitious and compelling. . . . The seduction of the serial killer narrative is difficult to shake, for reader and author alike. We keep watching, and we keep turning the pages. In our fascination, we’re all implicated." — New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
“Perfectly constructed and exquisitely written. . . . This is a serial killer novel that’s more Dostoyevsky than Lars Keplar —rich, anguished, brilliant.” — Washington Post
"Poetic and mesmerizing . . . Notes on an Execution is a career-defining novel—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
“At once blistering with righteous anger and radical empathy, Notes on an Execution is destined to become a contemporary classic.” — Esquire , The Most Anticipated Books of Winter 2022
"There's no question whodunit here: The killer is already in prison when the book begins. The story Notes aims to tell is how he got there. . . . But [Kukafka] also takes care to give Packer's victims what they never got in life: a voice." — Entertainment Weekly , 8 Books to Keep You Page-Turning All Season Long
"Deeply feeling, super raw . . . It's really creative. I never really had read anything like it." — Jenna Bush Hager, Read With Jenna
"Danya Kukafka’s Notes on an Execution is an intense thriller that reads like a mash-up of Law & Order and a college psych class. The fictional story of Ansel Packer, a serial killer on death row, is given a brilliant twist by focusing on the women he affected, ultimately asking why we’re drawn to crime stories about violent men. Cleverly constructed and smart, this is the kind of book you finish with a big exhale." — Real Simple
"A searing portrait of the complicated women caught in the orbit of a serial killer. Notes on an Execution examines a culture that romanticizes men who kill while also exploring the lives of the overlooked women altered by this violence. Compassionate and thought-provoking." — Brit Bennett, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Half
"Provocative, intelligent, thrilling, moving." — Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train
"Spellbinding and beautifully written. Danya Kukafka’s Notes on an Execution is an irresistible, unbearably tense thriller; a poignant, deeply compassionate tale of resilience; and a vital intervention in the way we talk about violent crime, its endless reverberations and foremost its survivors." — Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of The Turnout
"Reading Danya Kukafka’s Notes on an Execution is a profound and staggering experience of empathy that challenges us to confront what it means to be human in our darkest moments. The stories of these richly drawn characters are layered like nesting dolls, each one revealing more about how we love and how we survive. Kukafka’s prose, alive and poetic, is unforgettable. I relished every page of this brilliant and gripping masterpiece." — Ashley Audrain, New York Times bestselling author of The Push
“Notes on an Execution is seriously important crime fiction that trains the lens on a serial killer's victims rather than on the criminal himself and shows how the legacy of violence endures for decades, leaving a tidal wave of collateral damage in its wake. Kukakfa's story is unflinching and unromantic yet wrenching and devastating in equal measure. Never falling into the easy trap of sensationalism, Notes on an Execution pushes women to the forefront of a narrative that has too often overlooked them and all they suffer.” — Ivy Pochoda, award-winning author of These Women and Wonder Valley
“In Notes on an Execution, Danya Kukafka gives us something wrenchingly original, a rare and unsettling reading experience that challenges us to peel back what we believe about the criminal justice system, good and evil, and what human beings are capable of, both in darkness and in light. A moving tour de force of empathy and insight. I loved this book.” — Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of When the Stars Go Dark and The Paris Wife
"This striking, deeply compassionate novel is for anyone who’s ever been fascinated by serial killer stories — and also wondered if there ought to be more to them. Here, we see all the women whose lives have been affected by one man on the eve of his execution, from his mother to the detective who eventually catches him. Kukafka’s novel raises difficult questions about the narratives we create around charismatic men, and what forgiveness looks like in the face of terrible wrongs." — Grace D. Li, Washington Post
"Puts the reader in the shoes of a serial killer . . . to strip some mystique from the serial-killer mythology." — Rolling Stone
“An empathetic and gripping story about a serial killer on death row primarily told from the perspectives of the women in his life as the clock ticks to his execution.” — USA Today , 20 Winter Books We Can't Wait to Read
"This beautifully written book does overtime as a suspense-driven mediation on the true crime industry.” — Marie Claire, The Most Eagerly Anticipated Fiction by Women in 2022
"A chilling, surprisingly tender tale of how each tragedy ripples through many lives." — Good Housekeeping , The 15 Best and Most-Anticipated Books of 2022
“Masterly…Chilling and unexpected.” — Oprah Daily, The 50 Most Anticipated Books of 2022
“An inventive approach to the familiar serial killer narrative . . . a new kind of literary suspense novel. . . . Recommended for fans of Long Bright River and The Mars Room, Notes on an Execution examines our culture’s ghoulish obsession with crime stories about (invariably male) serial killers.” — Goodreads, Readers' Most Anticipated Books of January
"This distinctive take turns the overdone serial killer trope on its head, making it more palatable, more intelligent and more emotional. Kukafka portrays a sinister man through the perspectives of the women who knew and loved him, with subtle but shattering truths peppered throughout." — Newsweek , 22 Books to Look Forward to in 2022
"Kukafka crafts a disturbingly remorseless killer in Packer but infuses the events that draw readers to his final moments with raw empathy and lingering questions about human evil and the destruction left in its wake." — Booklist (starred review)
"Unshakable, deeply compassionate . . . Kukafka wrings tremendous suspense out of a story that isn’t a whodunit or even strictly a why-dunit, suspense born out of a desire to see these women transcend the identities consigned to them. . . . A contemporary masterpiece that sits alongside The Executioner’s Song and Victim: The Other Side of Murder in the library of crime literature." — Library Journal (starred review)
"This masterly thriller from Kukafka . . . skillfully uses the second-person present tense to heighten the drama, and toward the end she makes devastatingly clear the toll taken by Packer’s killings. Megan Abbott fans will be pleased." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Bewitching . . . In [Kukafka's] capable hands, villainy turns out to be everywhere and nowhere, a DNA that could be found under the fingernails of everybody’s hands.” — Marisha Pessl, New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice), on Girl in Snow
Danya Kukafka’s bewitching first novel spins a spell of mournful confession around a “Twin Peaks”-like centerpiece. In Kukafka’s capable hands, villainy turns out to be everywhere and nowhere, a DNA that could be found under the fingernails of everybody’s hands.
New York Times on Girl in Snow
Notes on an Execution is seriously important crime fiction that trains the lens on a serial killer's victims rather than on the criminal himself and shows how the legacy of violence endures for decades, leaving a tidal wave of collateral damage in its wake. Kukakfa's story is unflinching and unromantic yet wrenching and devastating in equal measure. Never falling into the easy trap of sensationalism, Notes on an Execution pushes women to the forefront of a narrative that has too often overlooked them and all they suffer.
In Notes on an Execution, Danya Kukafka gives us something wrenchingly original, a rare and unsettling reading experience that challenges us to peel back what we believe about the criminal justice system, good and evil, and what human beings are capable of, both in darkness and in light. A moving tour de force of empathy and insight. I loved this book.”
"Kukafka crafts a disturbingly remorseless killer in Packer but infuses the events that draw readers to his final moments with raw empathy and lingering questions about human evil and the destruction left in its wake."
Booklist (starred review)
"Poetic and mesmerizing . . . Notes on an Execution is a career-defining novel—powerful, important, intensely human, and filled with a unique examination of tragedy, one where the reader is left with a curious emotion: hope."
"Puts the reader in the shoes of serial killer . . . to strip some mystique from the serial-killer mythology."
Perfectly constructed and exquisitely written. . . . This is a serial killer novel that’s more Dostoyevsky than Lars Keplar —rich, anguished, brilliant.
"Provocative, intelligent, thrilling, moving."
Bewitching . . . In [Kukafka's] capable hands, villainy turns out to be everywhere and nowhere, a DNA that could be found under the fingernails of everybody’s hands.
"A searing portrait of the complicated women caught in the orbit of a serial killer. Notes on an Execution examines a culture that romanticizes men who kill while also exploring the lives of the overlooked women altered by this violence. Compassionate and thought-provoking."
"Spellbinding and beautifully written. Danya Kukafka’s Notes on an Execution is an irresistible, unbearably tense thriller; a poignant, deeply compassionate tale of resilience; and a vital intervention in the way we talk about violent crime, its endless reverberations and foremost its survivors."
"Reading Danya Kukafka’s Notes on an Execution is a profound and staggering experience of empathy that challenges us to confront what it means to be human in our darkest moments. The stories of these richly drawn characters are layered like nesting dolls, each one revealing more about how we love and how we survive. Kukafka’s prose, alive and poetic, is unforgettable. I relished every page of this brilliant and gripping masterpiece."
"A chilling, surprisingly tender tale of how each tragedy ripples through many lives."
08/01/2021
One cannot expect Kukafa, author of Girl in Snow , a much-praised best seller proclaimed a Best Summer Read by over a half-dozen venues, to turn in anything ordinary. Her second novel concerns serial killer Ansel Packer, about to be executed, who wants his bad deeds to be understood. His life is told through the lives of three women: his frantic mother, who gave birth at 17; his wife's twin sister, who watched Ansel destroy all that was good in their lives; and the homicide detective whose goal is to track down evil men.
2021-12-24
Ansel Packer has 12 hours to live. Emotionally detached from the deaths of Izzy Sanchez, Angela Meyer, and Lila Marony, the three girls he murdered almost 30 years ago, he's chiefly focused on the escape plan he's made with Shawna Billings, a prison guard, and his manifesto, in which he philosophizes about the nature of good and evil in the human psyche. While the clock ticks, Ansel is moved from Polunsky, his prison of the last seven years, to the Walls Unit, the last stop before his execution. Meanwhile, an earlier timeline presents the stories of Lavender, Ansel's lonely and abused mother, who abandoned him; Hazel, the twin sister of Ansel's former wife, Jenny Fisk, whom he may—or may not—have murdered; and Saffron Singh, a New York State police investigator, who has her own disturbing history with Ansel. Ansel is a chilling, creepy monster, tormented by memories of his mother and baby brother and hoping for sympathy that's never quite realized. The women's stories contain too much extraneous information and generally lack the emotional depth they need to compete with Ansel's fascinating creepiness. The backstory-heavy structure results in a slow pace whenever Ansel isn't present. His moment-of-death epiphany feels forced and is ultimately unconvincing. As a result, the promise of the intriguing premise in the early chapters isn't sustained. An epilogue that imagines the unlived lives of the murdered girls subtracts more than it adds.
A slow-paced portrait of a condemned serial killer and the women who disappointed him.
At once blistering with righteous anger and radical empathy, Notes on an Execution is destined to become a contemporary classic.
The Most Anticipated Books of Winter 2022 Esquire
Elegiac and involving . . . engagingly told . . . its endearing characters’ struggles linger in memory after this affecting work is done.
Wall Street Journal on Girl in Snow
"Deeply feeling, super raw . . . It's really creative. I never really had read anything like it."
"This novel is defiantly populated with living women . . . Kukafka evokes the disarming fog of grief, its wild illogic, its transformative power. . . . Notes on an Executio n is nuanced, ambitious and compelling. . . . The seduction of the serial killer narrative is difficult to shake, for reader and author alike. We keep watching, and we keep turning the pages. In our fascination, we’re all implicated."
New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
"Danya Kukafka’s Notes on an Execution is an intense thriller that reads like a mash-up of Law & Order and a college psych class. The fictional story of Ansel Packer, a serial killer on death row, is given a brilliant twist by focusing on the women he affected, ultimately asking why we’re drawn to crime stories about violent men. Cleverly constructed and smart, this is the kind of book you finish with a big exhale."
Perfectly constructed and exquisitely written. . . . This is a serial killer novel that’s more Dostoyevsky than Lars Keplar —rich, anguished, brilliant.
"Poetic and mesmerizing . . . Notes on an Execution is a career-defining novel—powerful, important, intensely human, and filled with a unique examination of tragedy, one where the reader is left with a curious emotion: hope."
Sensational . . . great characters, mysteries within mysteries, and page-turning pace. Highly recommended.
"There's no question whodunit here: The killer is already in prison when the book begins. The story Notes aims to tell is how he got there. . . . But [Kukafka] also takes care to give Packer's victims what they never got in life: a voice."
★ 03/01/2022
After seven years on death row, serial killer Ansel Packer has mere hours to live. He has a plan, a theory, and a rock-solid certainty that his life won't end as simply as those girls'. Shifting perspectives among the man condemned by his choices and the stories of four women linked, through him, to each other, this audiobook is perfect for fans of psychological suspense and complex female characters. Jim Meskiman's nonchalance and gravelly conviction put listeners directly into contact with the banality of evil in Ansel's chapters. Mozhan Marno (who voices Lavender, who made the mother of all choices to save her own life; Saffron, a fellow foster child with a long memory and hunter's instincts; Hazel, raised in her twin sister's shadow; and Blue, young and hopeful of finding family) crafts a distinct tone for each woman, reflecting generational and class differences but imbuing all with the sympathetic capacity that Ansel notably lacks. With commentary on the institutions of American justice, this is a thoughtful exploration of crime and punishment. VERDICT The dual narrators perfectly contrast Ansel's suffocating solipsism with the tragically interwoven lives of the women who survive him. Recommended most highly.—Lauren Kage
