9 h 2 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 9 h 2 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In a quiet valley of old houses and familiar faces, murder makes trust a dangerous choice.
The Porcelain Mask by John Jay Chichester takes you to New York’s Hudson Valley, where river views and country houses frame a detective puzzle. A murder disturbs this quiet setting. An investigator must work out who can be trusted among people whose family ties reach deep into the past.
Hidden identities and family secrets lie at the heart of the mystery. Within a closed circle of suspects, a familiar face offers no guarantee of honesty. You follow the clues, weigh each person’s story, and look for what remains concealed. The pleasure lies in testing your judgment as the investigation moves forward.
What you’ll discover
- A valley under suspicion Enter a landscape of river views and old estates where quiet surroundings hide a crime.
- Faces you must question Consider hidden identities as you weigh what each suspect claims to be.
- Family ties under pressure Follow an investigation that brings guarded family secrets into the open.
- A puzzle to pursue Study the clues and test your reading of events against the investigator’s.
- The slow unmasking Enjoy the steady pull of a mystery built around trust, suspicion, and concealed pasts.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy a country house mystery with red herrings, a clever amateur sleuth, bumbling officials, and the sights of New York in the Prohibition years. Fans of puzzles solved by small physical clues will feel at home.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Joan comes home to a changed house
- A smudged letter frightens the new bride
- A room on Eighth Avenue holds her past
- A husband's trust begins to crack
- Sarbella arrives and recognizes the bride
- A fugitive crook flees to Greenacres
- A scream and a shot in the night
- A doctor, a constable and a reporter
- Small clues and a fingerprint on glass
- What the story is about and how it is told
Who’s who
- Joan SheridanKirklan's stepsister, who loves him quietly, comes home from Europe to find another woman in her house and her room.
- Kirklan GilmoreA successful novelist who owns Greenacres, he marries in haste and fears a lie more than almost anything else.
- Helen GilmoreA beautiful bride with a hidden past, she wants respectability and safety and is terrified of being found out.
- Victor SarbellaAn Italian-American illustrator and guest at Greenacres, he carries a grief and a grudge he cannot share with his friend.
- Jimmy PriceCalled Wiggly because his ears move with his thoughts, he is a New York reporter who follows hunches and refuses to quit.
- BatesThe elderly Gilmore butler, who studies detective stories and is proud of his own deductions about the crime.
- Doctor BushnellThe family physician and a deputy coroner, he wants the case closed and trusts the obvious answer.
- Sergeant TishA round, stubborn New York detective who is hunting a crook who knocked him out and took his gun.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 9 h 2 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 15 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
eBooks and audiobooks open right away. Download EPUB or PDF, or send the book to your Kindle. Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout.
How it works
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read, listen and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook, audiobook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, 5 accounts for the price of one.
- We remind you first. Free for 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment. Then 0,14 USD a day in your first year on the yearly plan and 0,27 USD a day after, or 0,66 USD a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
Bought on its own? Every eBook, audiobook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
25 languages, side by side
Read and hear La máscara de porcelana in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
La máscara de porcelana
A bride of three weeks lies shot in Greenacres, and a reporter with restless ears trusts a black hairpin.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
Excellent
- Read or listen
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeFree for 3 months, then 0,14 USD a dayCancel anytimeHow it works
In short
The Porcelain Mask is a detective novel by John Jay Chichester, set on a grand estate beside the Hudson River in the years after the First World War. It follows one summer week at Greenacres, the home of the novelist Kirklan Gilmore, where a sudden marriage, a smudged letter and an unexpected guest pull a quiet household toward a murder.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Joan comes home to a changed house
The story opens with Joan Sheridan racing up the walnut-lined driveway of Greenacres in a rattling village taxi. She is twenty-one or twenty-two, and she has spent a little over a month in France with friends called the Sharps. She arrives a day early, eager to surprise everyone, and she greets the old butler Bates with his family nickname, Daddy Bates.
Bates already knows what she does not, and he cannot bring himself to say it. Upstairs, her mother, Mrs. Gilmore, tells her the news in halting pieces. Joan's stepbrother Kirklan, the novelist she has helped and cheered for years, has married. His bride is Helen Banton, a woman he met only a week before the wedding.
Free for 3 months · Cancel anytime
Free gifts
580 USD in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, 5 accounts for the price of one. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
170 USDFREE - Every audiobookIn 25 languages, any device
120 USDFREE - 15-minute summariesRead or listen, in 25 languages
60 USDFREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
60 USDFREE - 5 accounts for the price of oneA shelf for everyone at home
170 USDFREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
Questions about La máscara de porcelana
Can I read it free?
Yes. The first key idea of the 15-minute summary is free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 3 months, with the eBook to keep, plus 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy the printed book?
Soon. The paperback, hardcover and large print editions are being prepared. Choose Paperback or Hardcover above, leave your email, and we tell you the day you can order it, printed at cost.
How many accounts do I get?
Five, for the price of one: you and 4 more people, each with their own login, shelf and their own place in every book.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. Nothing is charged in your first 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment.
What is The Porcelain Mask about?
It is a detective novel about a murder at Greenacres, a Hudson Valley estate. A novelist's bride of three weeks is found shot, and a village constable, a New York detective and a reporter each try to find the killer.
Who is Wiggly Price in The Porcelain Mask?
Jimmy Price is a New York newspaper reporter nicknamed Wiggly because his ears move when he is excited or thinking. He reaches Greenacres through a tip and follows small clues that the police dismiss.
What is the porcelain mask in the title?
The title points to something worn to hide the real face of events. The book sets up that image through a black pottery vase found broken in the murder room, and the characters talk about it near the end.
More like this
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages, new audiobooks and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
