Ansel Packer is a murderer awaiting his execution which is to take place in 12 hours. Through the experiences of three women, his mother, his sister-in-law, and a childhood acquaintance who is a police officer, we learn who Ansel Packer is, who they are, and how he has impacted their lives.

Notes on an Execution is not a mystery. Rather it is a well-written exploration of how murder lives on long after the victim dies. In her introduction, Danya Kukafka said she wrote this novel because she was sick of our obsession with serial killers and wanted more focus on the women affected by them. Unfortunately, of the four main characters in Notes on an Execution, Ansel Packer is the most interesting.