Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what hes done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. But Ansel doesnt want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood.

Through a kaleidoscope of womena mother, a sister, a homicide detectivewe learn the story of Ansels life. We meet his mother, Lavender, a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation; Hazel, twin sister to Ansels wife, inseparable since birth, forced to watch helplessly as her sisters relationship threatens to devour them all; and finally, Saffy, the detective hot on his trail, who has devoted herself to bringing bad men to justice but struggles to see her own life clearly. As the clock ticks down, these three women sift through the choices that culminate in tragedy, exploring the rippling fissures that such destruction inevitably leaves in its wake.

Blending breathtaking suspense with astonishing empathy,Notes on an Executionpresents a chilling portrait of womanhood as it simultaneously unravels the familiar narrative of the American serial killer, interrogating our system of justice and our cultural obsession with crime stories, asking readers to consider the false promise of looking for meaning in the psyches of violent men.