You know The Executioners by it's other title Cape Fear, as it has been published since it was made into the classic movie. Filmed in 1962, starring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, it was a hit, and inspired a remake in 1995 by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert DeNiro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, and who can forget Juliette Lewis (DeNiro and Lewis were Oscar nominated). These were tense action films but both strayed so far from the original story as to have a significantly different perspective.
You may know Cape Fear, but you don't know The Executioners.
Sam Bowden and his wife Carol are comfortably settled in their town, with a teenage daughter Nancy, and two younger children. He is partner in a law firm, a straight shooter with defined morals of right and wrong. While in the Navy, he witnessed a drunken Max Cady rape a young girl, and his testimony during the court martial sent Max away for life. Now, 14 years later, Max has been released - still without remorse, in fact he blames Sam's puritanical righteousness for his prison time. He has just shown up in Sam's town, he has tracked him down, and he is watching the family.
Sam and Carol are aware of his presence, but they are helpless to stop his stalking, his taunting veiled threats. The police are also powerless until he commits a crime (except lock him up for a few days on minor charges). Strange events like the dog being poisoned, and the wheels of the car being loosened are not enough, anyone could have done that. Sam reaches out to everyone he knows to no avail, until he feels there is no choice - Sam and Carol decide to trap and kill him. Carol is not only for it, but eager to get it done. Even the kids are informed, and they agree. A plan is set at their country house, and although it is murder, the Sheriff privately condones it. "Think of him like he's a tiger. You want to get him in out of the brush. So you stake out a goat and you hide in a tree."
Sam dirties his hands dealing with the town underworld, as he plans the trap, even the disposal of the body. It beats sitting and waiting, scared every minute, as the tension washes the sand away from their castle walls.
What is most interesting is the original novel being based around the fear of the convict (Max is certainly a heavy, cigar smoking creep, certainly planning something) and the decision to kill before he strikes. Both films portray a very different outlook - both times he is a victim defending his family against attack - whereas here he is the executioner of a man, essentially in cold blood. Never mind the man has psychotic tendencies that can't be treated, Sam feels the right to kill based on fear alone.
There is a lot of talk and little action in this classic set-up, until page 175, where there is an explosion of violence that will make you jump out of your seat. Those fifteen pages are breathless and won the entire book over for me.
As a movie fan, I was waiting for a boat/houseboat to appear (as the finale set pieces), but again, the films told a different story about the Bowdens. Recommended as a classic thriller.
1957 / Hardcover / 191 pages
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