Danya Kukafka Books

Serial killer Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. Told through a kaleidoscope of women--a mother, a sister, a homicide detective--we learn the story of Ansel's life. We meet his mother, Lavender, a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation; Hazel, twin sister to Ansel's wife, inseparable since birth, forced to watch helplessly as her sister's 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 Execution presents 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.

As morning dawns in a sleepy Colorado suburb, a dusting of snow covers high-school freshman Lucinda Hayes's dead body on a playground carousel. Accusations spread quickly and Lucinda's tragic death draws three outsiders from the shadows. Oddball Cameron Whitley loved - still loves - Lucinda. Though they've hardly ever spoken, and any sensible onlooker would call him Lucinda's stalker, Cameron is convinced that he knows her better than anyone. Completely untethered by the news of her death, Cameron's erratic behaviour provides the town ample reason to suspect that he's the killer. Jade Dixon-Burns hates Lucinda. Lucinda took everything from her. The worst part was Lucinda's blissful ignorance to the damage she'd wrought. Officer Russ Fletcher doesn't know Lucinda, but he knows the kid everyone is talking about, the boy who may have killed her. Cameron Whitley is his ex-partner's son. Now Russ must take a painful journey through the past to solve Lucinda's murder and keep a promise he made long ago.

Ein erschütternder Thriller über drei Frauen, die in den Bannkreis eines Serienmörders geraten In 12 Stunden soll Ansel Packer hingerichtet werden. Doch dies ist nicht seine Geschichte. Dies ist die Geschichte der Frauen, die er zurückgelassen hat. Ansel Packer weiß genau, was er verbrochen hat. Nun wartet er auf seine Hinrichtung – das gleiche grausame Schicksal, das er vor Jahren seinen Opfern auferlegt hat. Doch er will nicht sterben. Er will verstanden werden. Durch ein Kaleidoskop von Frauen – eine Mutter, eine Schwester, eine Kommissarin der Mordkommission – erfahren wir die Geschichte seines Lebens. Atemberaubend spannend zeigt Kukafka in diesem virtuos erzählten Thriller nicht nur das Narrativ des Serienmörders in neuem Licht, sie zeichnet auch ein mitreißendes Porträt von Weiblichkeit.