Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

March 30, 2022

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

Ansel Packer is on death row, scheduled to be executed in 12 hours. But Ansel is convinced that he will not be executed. He has written a massive document that he believes justifies his actions as a serial killer, and that once his philosophical treatise is presented to the judge, the governor, and the press, he will be celebrated as one of the great minds of our time. The story of his life is told by three women who were close to him: his teenaged mother, his former sister-in-law, and the detective who finally caught him. 

This is a dark story, but one of the best books I read in 2022. It describes some of the women caught in his sphere. The author says that she wrote the book because average or mediocre men become interesting to the public at large when they start killing women. She makes the story about the women rather than about the killer.