2023 Edgar Award for Best Novel
'THRILLING' Paula Hawkins
'COMPULSIVE' The Times
'SEARING' Brit Bennett
'DEVASTATING' Observer
'UNFORGETTABLE' Ashley Audrain
'BRILLIANT' Chris Whitaker
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.
WINNER OF THE MWA EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL 2023
Genre: Mystery
'COMPULSIVE' The Times
'SEARING' Brit Bennett
'DEVASTATING' Observer
'UNFORGETTABLE' Ashley Audrain
'BRILLIANT' Chris Whitaker
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.
WINNER OF THE MWA EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL 2023
Genre: Mystery
Praise for this book
"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
"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
"A searing portrait of the complicated women caught in the orbit of a serial killer. . . . Compassionate and thought-provoking." - Brit Bennett
"Provocative, intelligent, thrilling, moving." - Paula Hawkins
"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
"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
"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
"A searing portrait of the complicated women caught in the orbit of a serial killer. . . . Compassionate and thought-provoking." - Brit Bennett
"Provocative, intelligent, thrilling, moving." - Paula Hawkins
"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
"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
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