Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. But this is not his story.

Ansel doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood. Yet now he awaits the same fate he forced on those girls, years ago.

This is the story of the women who survive.

As the clock ticks down, three women – a mother, a sister, a detective – reckon with the choices that culminate in tragedy, the impact on those in its wake, and the possibility of redemption.

There would be no story, for these girls alone. There would be no vigil, no attention at all. They are relevant because of Ansel and the fascination the world has for men like him.

Note on an Execution is, ostensibly, about a man who has murdered a number of women and who is now living out his final hours as he awaits the death penalty. The novel begins on the morning of that last day with 12 hours to go, and we revisit him periodically as those hours and minutes reduce as his time draws near. During that time, we get some insight into his character, and he comes across, unsurprisingly, as a deeply unpleasant individual. He’s a manipulative and judgemental person, one who is happy to use those around him but with little interest in those who don’t hold some value for him.

While reading about someone’s last few hours on death row may hold some appeal, particularly as the possibility is raised that his sentence won’t come to pass which adds a thrilling element to the narrative, this novel is about so much more, and rather than focussing on the killer, it moves the focus to the women (not his victims) who are in some way affected by him and his actions. We get the perspectives of Ansel’s mother, the detective who eventually obtains the confession for the crimes he’s committed after doggedly pursuing him for a number of years, and his sister-in-law.

I loved the way in which these perspectives give the reader insight into Ansel and his character through the different stages of his life. We see him as a toddler, as a child approaching adolescence, as a college-aged student, and as the man that he becomes. It is a novel about a serial killer, and yet Notes on an Execution isn’t the standard story. Rather, it paints a picture of a charismatic man – and for all his faults, Ansel is certainly that – but strips away some of the ideology and fascination that can build up around such individuals. From what I can tell, this is exactly Kukafka’s aim – to move the spotlight away from the people who do terrible things and to share the stories of those who are affected by such individuals yet often forgotten or side-lined by that person’s infamy.

What Kukafka also does well is to contrast Ansel’s opinion of himself with that of those around him. Ansel is an individual who thinks very highly of himself, and believes that his talents and intelligence have gone unnoticed and unappreciated by the world around him. He hopes to share his “theory” with the world and to be celebrated as the genius that he believes he is. He is, in this respect, set up in the mould of a typical serial killer. Through the eyes of the women whose perspectives are shared, he comes across rather differently, and seems to be a rather mediocre man. It’s clear that he’s intelligent, although not astoundingly so. And if he has a certain allure about him – all of these women feel it to a degree – that fascination can soon wane as they begin to see through the façade that he presents to the world. It’s brilliantly done, and successfully makes his character seem all the more ordinary than he would have you believe.

Notes on an Execution is a serial killer novel with a difference. We don’t see Ansel in action, but learn of his crimes retrospectively as Kukafka moves the focus away from the man and looks at the often-devastating impact that his actions have on others. It’s a taut and compelling novel, and while the subject matter may not suit all, particularly the relatively brief elements of abuse, it’s a novel that successfully highlights the fascination that some have with such individuals, and why it does their victims and those who are impacted by their actions an injustice. Recommended.