2023-18. Notes On An Execution

Danya Kukafka. 2022.

This is not at all what I expected going in.  The title made me think it would be another memoir with well-worn thoughts on the misguided use of the death penalty in the States.  After the first chapter, I was thinking that it was going to be a series of fictional short stories about executions, but eventually I discovered that it was actually a novel in multiple timelines and from multiple narrator perspectives that were converging on the opening chapter.  This caused me a significant amount of confusion for a significant amount of the book, which ended up being a distraction from the narrative.  It felt like it was trying to be deliberately obtuse, more like a murder mystery than was necessary since the mystery was revealed in chapter one.

That aside, the crime solving part of the story and, in particular, the young-at-the-beginning-of-the-book detective's story was particularly well done.  Her relationships (to people and her job) and tenacity were remarkably well explored.  The other voices, though, weren't as developed.  This made sense for the executed, since one of the main themes of the book is that despite being a serial killer of young women who fancied himself clever and charming, he was just ordinary an ordinary guy who killed women and girls because he could.  His mother, too, was less complicated, but it felt like her character could have been presented with more layers.   

In all, as a thriller it was a solid read.

Not not recommended.

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