The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Kukafka, Dayna. Notes on an Execution. Harper Collins. 2022. First Edition.

The narrative shifts voice and perspective in relationship to which of its two main narrative lines is in focus at any given point in the text. The first narrative line, focusing on the end-of-life experiences of serial killer Anson Packer, is told from the second-person, present-tense perspective of the character. The second narrative line, focusing on the experiences of three women impacted by his life and behavior, is told from the third-person limited, past-tense perspectives of the three characters in question. Throughout the first narrative line, Packer is referred to primarily by his last name, while throughout the second narrative line, Packer is referred to primarily by his first name, Ansel. This convention (i.e., stylistic pattern) will be followed throughout this analysis.

The novel begins with a section of text describing the beginning of Packer’s last day of life. It includes references to the crimes of which he has been found guilty (i.e., the killing of three teenage girls), and to his plans to escape execution with the assistance of a female security guard whom he has manipulated into caring for him. This section of the text is followed by the initial section of the second narrative line – in this case, the woman whose story is in focus is Ansel’s mother, Lavender. Here, the text describes her difficult marriage to violent abuser Johnny, the challenges she faced when giving birth to his two children (Ansel and the infant referred to for most of the narrative as Baby Packer), and how she eventually chose to separate from her husband and leave her children to the foster care system.

This structural pattern repeats throughout most of the book – first a section of text focusing on Packer, then a section of text focusing on the experiences of one of the women affected by who he became and what he did. The narrative line focusing on Packer follows him through the last twelve hours of his life, revealing his plan to escape, the failure of that plan, and the final moments before his execution. Throughout this narrative line, there are explorations of his troubled childhood in the foster care system, his relationship with the vivacious Jenny, and the different circumstances and consequences of his murderous interactions with three young women, thought of by Packer (and referred to in narration) as “the Girls” [sic]. There are also descriptions of his relationship with a young woman named Blue, whom he eventually learns is family and who becomes an official, legal witness to his death.

In alternation with the sections of text focusing on Packer, and in addition to sections of text focusing on Lavender, sections of other text focus on Saffy (the police detective who eventually tracked down and arrested Packer) and on Hazel (Jenny’s fraternal twin sister). The sections focusing on Saffy reveal that she was in the same foster home as Packer, that they had a troubled relationship, and that her post-foster care life of drugs and partying came to an end when she realized a calling to become a police investigator. The Saffy sections of text also focus on her increasing obsession with tracking down Packer and proving his guilt. Meanwhile, the sections focusing on Hazel focus on her frequently difficult relationship with Jenny, her suspicions of Ansel Packer (which surfaced almost as soon as Jenny introduced him to the family), and her realization, after Jenny’s death, of just what a monster Ansel Packer actually was.

The novel concludes with Packer’s execution, attended by both Hazel and Blue. In his final moments, he begs for a second chance, but is refused. In the moment of his death, he feels an experience of love that Blue always insisted was present in him. In an epilogue-like final section, the narrative describes what the lives of the Girls – his first three victims – might have been like.