The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth L. Silver

Noa P. Singleton never spoke a word in her own defense throughout a brief trial that ended with a jury finding her guilty of first-degree murder. Ten years later, having accepted her fate, she sits on death row in a maximum-security penitentiary, just six months away from her execution date.
Seemingly out of the blue, she is visited by Marlene Dixon, a high-powered Philadelphia attorney who is also the mother of the woman Noa was imprisoned for killing. Marlene tells Noa that she has changed her mind about the death penalty and Noa’s sentence, and will do everything in her considerable power to convince the governor to commute the sentence to life in prison, in return for the one thing Noa is unwilling to trade: her story.
      Marlene desperately wants Noa to reveal the events that led to her daughter’s death – events that Noa has never shared with a soul. With death looming, Marlene believes that Noa may finally give her the answers she needs, though Noa is far from convinced that Marlene deserves the salvation she alone can deliver. Inextricably linked by murder but with very different goals, Noa and Marlene wrestle with the sentences life itself can impose while they confront the best and worst of what makes us human in this haunting tale of love, anguish, and deception.

 This was definitely an interesting read. It wasn’t exactly what I expected, but it was a book that I would recommend to people who like psychological mysteries. 

One of the things I enjoyed most about the novel was the way it unfolded. The reader really doesn’t get too much information at the beginning, and the protagonist and narrator, Noa, doesn’t give too much away. Only as the story moves forward to we start to get glimpses of what really happened to Noa and Sarah. This way of telling a story creates lots of tension, which makes for a very interesting read. 

The writing, for the most part, is lovely. There were some phrases that I found a bit overdone, but that might just be personal taste. All in all, it was a book that is hard to put down once you start it.

If you like unreliable narrators and psychological mysteries, then this one is for you. 





 * I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.