Book Description
for The Executioners Three by Susan Dennard
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Freddie Gellar (white) aspires to be a detective, so when a body is found in the nearby woods, she’s sure it’s murder — and she’s on the case. Unexplainable and eerie events around her small town seem tied to “The Executioners Three” poem, and perhaps to her own father. He had been the town’s sheriff until he died of a supposed heart attack when Freddie was a child, but no one, including her mother, will talk about the circumstances of his death. Her investigation becomes entwined with a long-standing rivalry involving an exchange of creative pranks between her high school and the local private academy. The current sheriff’s nephew, Theo, is a student at the academy and should be her sworn enemy, so why does Freddie find him so irresistibly attractive? Increasingly ominous attacks challenge Freddie’s deductive skills, but with the help of her best friend Divya (South Asian American) she perseveres despite personal risk. The engaging enemies-to-lovers storyline and sharply funny dialogue balance the darker aspects of the mystery, while Nokia phones and X-Files references firmly root the story in 1999.
CCBC Choices 2026. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin – Madison, 2026. Used with permission.

