Lola, California by Edie Meidav

I haven’t run across many books dealing with death row and the death penalty. Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song comes to mind, and more recently, Naseem Rahka’s The Crying Tree (which Meghan reviewed a few weeks ago). In Edie Meidav’s Lola, California, a daughter is estranged from her father who is currently on death row and awaiting execution in ten days. A friend, from whom she has been estranged, finds her and attempts reuniting her with her father before his execution.

I like a novel that sets readers up with mysteries about its characters and Lola, California does that right away. It is easy to tell that the friends, Lana and Rose are very close, and both seem to have deep admiration for Lana’s father Vic Mahler, a writer of some note. I started to wonder right away what would have caused such a rift between the three of them that would send them so fully away from each other and into radically different lives.