The Executioners Three Summary, Characters and Themes

The Executioners Three by Susan Dennard is a supernatural thriller that blends mystery, folklore, and the anxieties of adolescence into a chilling modern legend.  Set in the fog-covered town of City-on-the-Berme, the story follows high school student Freddie Gellar, whose curiosity drags her into a web of eerie deaths, ancient curses, and a centuries-old rivalry between schools.

What begins as a lighthearted prank war quickly unravels into a battle between life and death, where the echoes of the past threaten to consume the present.  Dennard’s novel captures both the terror and courage of youth confronting the unknown.

Summary

The novel begins with Theo Porter, a student from Fortin Prep, driving late at night through the foggy woods near City-on-the-Berme Park.  When he swerves to avoid raccoons and crashes into a tree, he encounters something sinister—a rope-like, blood-soaked object that moves on its own.

As he tries to escape, he hears a bell tolling from deep in the woods and spots a shadowy figure following him through the mist.  Terrified, Theo speeds away, unaware that this encounter marks the start of a series of violent, inexplicable events.

The next morning, the focus shifts to Freddie Gellar, a student at Berm High.  She recently caused an uproar by accidentally reporting what she thought were distress calls in the woods, leading to the arrest of students from Fortin Prep who were only having a party.

The incident earns her both ridicule and fame.  As the town prepares for the annual Fête du Bûcheron festival, Freddie and her best friend Divya help decorate the Village Historique.

While stringing lights, Freddie recalls hearing the same mysterious bell that rang during Theo’s encounter, even though the schoolhouse bell is broken.

Later, Freddie and Divya venture into the park, where they discover a man hanging from a high tree branch.  The authorities rule it a suicide, but Freddie doubts it, believing the man could not have reached that height alone.

Her unease grows as crows fill the skies and strange coincidences unfold.  Soon, she meets Kyle Friedman, a popular Berm High student, who surprisingly invites her to join his social circle.

At the Quick-Bis diner, she is introduced to the “Official Log,” a secret book chronicling decades of prank wars between Berm High and Fortin Prep.  Her accidental tip-off to the police earns her a place in the log, elevating her social status overnight.

The celebration is interrupted when Theo Porter, the boy from the crash, arrives to mock them and reclaim the stolen logbook.  A chaotic retaliation from Fortin Prep follows, with water balloons and humiliating pranks.

In the aftermath, Freddie’s name becomes both respected and infamous.  Kyle comforts her and asks her out, drawing her deeper into the group’s rivalry-fueled schemes.

That night, Kyle’s friends plan a syrup-and-birdseed prank on Fortin Prep.  Freddie, eager to prove herself, joins them and photographs the event with her mother’s camera.

But the night turns strange when eerie bells echo through the fog and crows swarm overhead.  Laina, one of Kyle’s friends, collapses, triggered by the noise.

The group completes their prank, but Freddie’s curiosity leads her to sneak into Fortin’s dorms, where she spies on Theo and spots the missing logbook.  When he catches her, she narrowly escapes.

The following day, Freddie investigates the legend of a cursed bell connected to the rivalry between the two schools.  In the town archives, she uncovers a 1949 text describing “The Executioners Three”—servants of a nobleman named José Allard Fortin who forged a blood oath in the 1600s.

A poem describes their ritual killings and the tolling of a bell that binds their souls.  Strange occurrences accompany her research: flickering lights, the smell of rot, and unseen whispers.

She also discovers new evidence suggesting that Dr.  Bob Fontana, the hanging victim, was murdered, not suicidal.

Freddie reports her findings to Sheriff Bowman, Theo’s aunt, but her photographic proof disappears—someone has tampered with her film.  Bowman accuses her of lying, echoing the reputation of Freddie’s late father, a disgraced investigator.

Isolated and frustrated, Freddie vows to continue her investigation despite warnings to stop.

Her search intertwines with a developing connection to Theo.  They begin exchanging messages online, leading to a secret meeting at Fortin Prep.

While her friends pull off another prank, Freddie and Theo sneak into the school archives.  They discover missing newspaper editions from 1975, the year of a previous beheading linked to the Fortin curse.

Their growing bond leads to an unexpected kiss, only to be interrupted by Dr.  Born, Theo’s counselor.

Embarrassed and suspicious, Freddie flees—but she soon notices ritual candles at the crypt, matching descriptions from the Executioners legend.

When Freddie later returns to the woods with Divya, they uncover ancient gravestones bearing the names of Fortin’s legendary servants, each marked with his motto, “Le pouvoir réside dans le service. ” Their discovery confirms that the curse’s origins are real.

Before they can flee, they are confronted by Laina, whose unnatural strength and haunted eyes suggest possession by the Executioners’ spirits.

As events spiral out of control, Freddie is attacked, captured, and nearly killed by Laina before a mysterious bell sound forces Laina to retreat.  Reunited with her friends, Freddie learns that Dr. Born has been manipulating events all along.  They break into the archives, where Born reveals his true identity—Edgar Fabre Jr.

—a descendant of the blacksmith who once forged the cursed bell.  He has been reenacting the historic ritual murders—hanging, beheading, and disembowelment—to resurrect the Executioners’ spirits and control them through the bell.

Theo, the last heir of the Fortin family, is his final target.

During the climactic confrontation on the Village Historique stage, Born sacrifices Theo as the curse begins to manifest in flames and voices.  Freddie realizes that the only way to end it is to ring the ancient bell with the original clapper.

Racing against time, she retrieves it and shatters the bell, breaking the curse.  The spirits turn on Born, exacting their revenge, leaving him dead and the town forever changed.

In the aftermath, federal agents from the Department of Unexplained Phenomena arrive, interviewing witnesses and covering up the supernatural elements.  Most townspeople lose their memories of the horrors, but Freddie and Theo remember enough to seek answers.

Despite the trauma, they find solace in each other.  During the Fête du Bûcheron, they perform together in the Lumberjack Pageant, sealing their bond with a kiss as the cracked bell lies silent—a relic of the darkness they overcame.

The Executioners Three closes with Freddie standing on the threshold between adolescence and adulthood, haunted yet hopeful.  The town celebrates, the curse broken, and the fog finally lifts—leaving the faint echo of a bell that no one else can hear.

Characters

Freddie Gellar

Freddie Gellar stands at the heart of The Executioners Three, evolving from a curious and impulsive teenager into a resilient young woman confronting the supernatural and moral corruption surrounding her.  Initially characterized by her well-meaning naïveté, Freddie’s call to the police—mistakenly exposing Fortin Prep’s party—sets in motion the chain of rivalries and mysteries that engulf her town.

Her defining traits are curiosity, courage, and a sense of justice that often compels her into danger.  She embodies the archetype of the reluctant investigator, a young person who must reconcile rational skepticism with the reality of the uncanny.

Throughout the novel, Freddie’s skepticism gives way to conviction as she uncovers the cursed lineage of the Allard Fortin family and the modern murders replicating ancient rituals.  Her relationships, especially with Divya and Theo, test her loyalty and emotional maturity.

By the end, Freddie emerges as both survivor and truth-seeker, driven by compassion and intellect, bridging the gap between the ordinary and the supernatural.

Theo Porter

Theo Porter is a compelling figure of duality—both antagonist and eventual ally.  As a Fortin Prep student and heir to the Allard Fortin legacy, Theo’s identity intertwines with the very curse haunting City-on-the-Berme.

His initial portrayal—a sarcastic, rebellious youth who mocks Freddie—masks deeper wounds: familial pressure, isolation, and the burden of inherited guilt.  Theo’s gradual vulnerability, revealed through his tentative romance with Freddie and his complex relationship with Sheriff Bowman, humanizes him.

His humor and charm often shield trauma, but when confronted with the truth of his lineage and Dr.  Born’s manipulation, Theo becomes a symbol of resistance against fate.

His self-sacrifice during the climax, enduring the ritual stabbing, redefines him from rival to redeemer.  In Theo, Susan Dennard crafts a tragic but redemptive figure—haunted by ancestry, yet determined to break the cycle of violence that defines his bloodline.

Divya Patel

Divya Patel, Freddie’s loyal and witty best friend, provides both emotional balance and rational grounding throughout the story.  Initially playful and skeptical, Divya’s loyalty often masks her fear of deeper emotional exposure, especially concerning her feelings for Laina.

Her dynamic with Freddie oscillates between comic relief and heartfelt support, but as the supernatural horror intensifies, Divya evolves into a brave, active participant in unraveling the curse.  Her skepticism makes her a foil to Freddie’s growing obsession with the town’s mysteries, yet her eventual belief and courage in the face of danger affirm her as a pillar of strength.

Divya’s emotional honesty contrasts with the secrecy that pervades the story’s darker characters, highlighting themes of friendship, trust, and the fear of loss.  Her confrontation with the possessed Laina marks a turning point, revealing her inner strength and capacity for forgiveness amid chaos.

Laina Steward

Laina Steward epitomizes the fragile boundary between glamour and horror.  At first, she appears as the archetypal popular girl—confident, charismatic, and commanding social power within Berm High’s elite.

Beneath that façade lies a troubled psyche plagued by migraines and hidden sensitivity to sound, later revealed as symptoms of supernatural possession.  Laina’s transformation—from admired leader to tormented vessel of the Executioners’ curse—serves as a chilling commentary on vulnerability beneath perfection.

Her possession symbolizes the corruption of innocence by inherited evil, aligning her tragedy with Theo’s, though expressed through loss of autonomy rather than guilt.  Laina’s final scenes—her violent strength and haunted eyes—make her both victim and symbol of the curse’s human toll.

In her, Dennard intertwines pathos and horror, showing how easily beauty and popularity can mask inner ruin.

Kyle Friedman

Kyle Friedman begins as the quintessential golden boy of Berm High—charming, athletic, and seemingly kind-hearted.  His initial interest in Freddie appears romantic, yet his motives blur between genuine affection and social opportunism.

Kyle’s need to maintain status within the prank wars reveals his insecurity, making him a complex blend of decency and weakness.  His reckless driving and impulsive decisions often catalyze chaos, but in the story’s final act, his courage redeems him.

Driving the Jeep into the stage to stop Dr.  Born’s ritual transforms Kyle from shallow jock to unlikely hero.

His arc underscores the novel’s recurring theme: heroism born not from purity but from flawed humanity.  Kyle’s devotion to his friends, despite his immaturity, highlights his underlying moral core.

Sheriff Rita Bowman

Sheriff Rita Bowman represents the weary rationality of an adult world that refuses to see the supernatural.  As a law enforcer and Theo’s aunt, she straddles personal and professional conflict, torn between protecting her family and maintaining authority.

Her dismissal of Freddie’s evidence, though frustrating, stems from deep-seated guilt over past failures and a pragmatic refusal to believe in curses.  Bowman’s gradual unraveling mirrors the town’s descent into hysteria.

When she becomes a spectral presence during the climax, it symbolizes both her moral exhaustion and the curse’s grip over City-on-the-Berme.  Bowman’s character adds depth to the narrative’s theme of generational blindness—the inability of adults to confront inherited evil until it is too late.

Dr. Edgar Born

Dr. Edgar Born, initially introduced as a well-meaning school counselor, emerges as the story’s sinister core.

His transformation from trusted adult to unhinged murderer embodies the horror of intellect corrupted by obsession.  As Edgar Fabre Jr.

, he personifies the cyclical vengeance of history—a man consumed by his ancestor’s failure to control the Executioners’ power.  His meticulous recreation of the ancient murders reveals both madness and a perverse sense of purpose.

Unlike typical villains, Born justifies his crimes through historical restoration, believing himself to be reviving justice rather than committing atrocity.  His manipulation of Theo and Freddie exposes the dangers of authority misused under the guise of mentorship.

In death, his gruesome fate—mirroring the very rituals he sought to command—cements him as the ultimate victim of his own hubris.

José Allard Fortin and the Executioners

Though centuries dead, José Allard Fortin and his Executioners loom spectrally over the narrative.  Fortin’s legend, of a nobleman binding servants to eternal servitude through blood oaths, anchors the novel’s mythology.

The Executioners—Damien le Portier, Justin le Charretière, and their unknown third counterpart—embody twisted loyalty and vengeance, haunting the living descendants entangled in their curse.  Their presence blurs the boundary between myth and memory, shaping the atmosphere of dread that defines the novel.

The Executioners are not mere ghosts but symbols of history’s grip on the present—the unending cycle of servitude, violence, and retribution that both Theo and Freddie must confront.  In them, Susan Dennard crafts a haunting allegory of power, guilt, and the futility of denying the past.

Themes

Fear and the Unknown

In The Executioners Three, fear operates not merely as a reaction but as an atmosphere that permeates every moment of the story.  From Theo’s initial encounter in the fog-shrouded woods to Freddie’s obsession with the mysterious bell, fear assumes a physical and psychological form.

The novel situates fear within the intersection of reality and legend, showing how uncertainty magnifies terror.  The early scenes—fog, darkness, the grotesque image of a moving intestine—set the tone for an environment where what is unseen or only half-seen exerts the greatest influence.

The fog itself becomes a recurring embodiment of dread, blurring boundaries between the living and the dead, the rational and the supernatural.  Freddie’s recurring dreams, the tolling bell, and the mutilated corpses intensify this sense of encroaching horror.

What makes the fear compelling is how it corrodes the ordinary.  A small-town rivalry between two schools becomes intertwined with ancient curses and demonic inheritance, transforming adolescent mischief into a gateway to unspeakable evil.

The characters’ inability to separate myth from fact mirrors humanity’s own fear of what it cannot explain.  Dennard masterfully situates fear not as an external force alone but as something internalized—the creeping suspicion that evil is real and that one might already be part of it.

This transformation of everyday anxiety into a palpable menace gives the novel its enduring unease, where the line between psychological paranoia and supernatural reality remains impossible to define until the very end.

Legacy and the Weight of the Past

The entire conflict of The Executioners Three rests on the shadow of history.  The curse of Allard Fortin, the missing October 1975 records, and the spectral Executioners reveal how the sins and violence of previous generations continue to dictate the present.

Freddie’s discovery of the diary and her realization that the legends are historically grounded show how the past never truly dies—it mutates and resurfaces in new forms.  Dennard presents legacy not as mere ancestry but as an inescapable chain of moral inheritance.

Theo, as the last Fortin heir, embodies this burden most directly: his bloodline makes him both victim and vessel of the curse.  Yet Freddie too is bound by inheritance, haunted by her father’s tarnished reputation as an investigator who never redeemed himself.

Each character’s struggle is thus framed as a confrontation with ghosts of lineage, both literal and metaphorical.  The town’s culture itself is steeped in memorialization—through festivals, pageants, and historical reenactments that inadvertently keep old horrors alive.

In attempting to preserve the past, the community resurrects it.  This cyclical relationship suggests that the past’s influence cannot be escaped by denial or reverence; it must be confronted and broken.

The destruction of the bell, the novel’s ultimate symbol of Fortin’s legacy, marks both an exorcism and a reckoning—acknowledging that history’s grip can only be released through acknowledgment, not ignorance.

Friendship, Loyalty, and Betrayal

Throughout The Executioners Three, relationships among the young characters reflect shifting alliances and hidden tensions that echo the larger theme of trust under siege.  Freddie’s friendship with Divya, her attraction to Theo, and her uneasy inclusion in Kyle’s elite circle all explore how loyalty is tested when truth and fear collide.

The novel presents friendship not as a stabilizing force but as something fragile, easily corroded by secrecy and self-preservation.  Freddie’s decision to investigate on her own repeatedly isolates her, while Divya’s wavering faith and Laina’s shocking transformation reveal how trust can crumble when danger emerges.

The teenagers’ pranks and rivalries begin as social games but evolve into moral tests that expose selfishness and courage alike.  Even Theo’s shifting role—from antagonist to ally to love interest—embodies betrayal’s complex nature; he is at once victim of his heritage and participant in deception.

Dennard uses these relational dynamics to question whether genuine loyalty can survive in a world built on lies and inherited guilt.  In the end, friendship proves to be an act of courage rather than comfort.

Freddie’s final actions—risking her life to save Theo and Divya—demonstrate that loyalty, when purified by danger, can transcend both fear and betrayal.  Yet the scars left behind imply that trust, once broken, never returns unmarked, suggesting a realism beneath the supernatural trappings.

The Conflict Between Rationality and Belief

One of the novel’s most striking undercurrents is its tension between skepticism and faith in the unseen.  Freddie begins as a rational, practical teenager who dismisses the Executioners’ curse as folklore, relying instead on investigation, evidence, and logic.

But as the inexplicable events mount—erased film, impossible deaths, Laina’s possession, the bell’s destructive power—her confidence in empirical truth erodes.  Dennard portrays this conflict not as a surrender to superstition but as an expansion of understanding.

The characters are forced to accept that reality may not conform to reason, and that disbelief can itself become a form of blindness.  Sheriff Bowman, who initially frames everything as mischief or hysteria, serves as a tragic emblem of rational authority collapsing under the weight of the unexplainable.

By contrast, Freddie’s eventual acceptance of the supernatural represents growth rather than regression.  Her ability to act decisively—ringing the cursed bell and breaking its spell—comes only after she embraces the coexistence of logic and faith.

Dennard uses this dynamic to explore the limits of human comprehension and the peril of arrogance in the face of mystery.  The novel ultimately suggests that truth lies in synthesis: rationality without imagination is powerless, and belief without discernment is dangerous.

The balance between the two becomes the only way to survive the darkness that reason alone cannot dispel.

Power, Corruption, and Control

The theme of power saturates The Executioners Three, manifesting through ancient curses, personal manipulation, and institutional authority.  Edgar Fabre Jr.

’s quest to revive the Executioners epitomizes the intoxicating allure of control.  His belief that he can command supernatural forces through ritual and murder echoes humanity’s timeless desire to master death itself.

Power, in his hands, becomes synonymous with domination—over history, over the dead, and over the living heirs of Fortin.  Yet Dennard also exposes subtler forms of power abuse: social hierarchies within the high schools, the sheriff’s coercive authority, and the manipulation embedded in teenage relationships.

Kyle’s charm masks entitlement; Bowman’s skepticism conceals fear of losing control; even Freddie’s drive to uncover the truth occasionally verges on obsession, hinting at how easily noble intent can transform into compulsion.  The cursed bell symbolizes this duality: it both commands and enslaves, offering authority at the price of humanity.

The novel’s climax, where Born’s attempt to wield ultimate power results in his grotesque destruction, completes the moral arc—asserting that power sought through domination inevitably consumes its wielder.  In contrast, Freddie’s act of breaking the bell asserts a restorative power grounded in sacrifice and empathy.

Through this reversal, Dennard suggests that real strength lies not in control but in relinquishing it, proving that power’s truest measure is found in restraint and compassion rather than subjugation.