Story summary
Streszczenie książki Porcelanowa Maska
- 8 min czytania
- 10 parts
- Nagranie wkrótce
A bride of three weeks lies dead at Greenacres, and a reporter with wiggling ears will not accept the easy answer.
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Porcelanowa Maska — najważniejsze informacje
Streszczenie: 8 min czytania
- Czas czytania
- Około 5 h 5 min4 h fast, 6 h 5 min slow
- Długość
- Liczba słów: 72 600
- Poziom trudności w bibliotece
- Średni longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Ile czasu zajmuje przeczytanie klasyków · Zaktualizowano
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Porcelanowa Maska in short
The Porcelain Mask begins with a happy girl coming home. Between that homecoming and the answer, a bride with a secret marriage dies in a room that was once Joan's. The evidence points first to a grieving artist, then to a hunted crook, and then toward the people nearest the dead woman.
What Porcelanowa Maska is about
What would you do if you came home from a trip abroad and found that the man you love has married a stranger, and that she has taken your room? Joan Sheridan faces exactly that at Greenacres, a big old house on the Hudson River north of New York City. Before the book is over, that house holds a murder, and almost everyone under its roof looks guilty.
The Porcelain Mask is a detective novel by John Jay Chichester. It mixes a family mystery with a newspaper chase. You meet a bride with a past she cannot speak about, a crook on the run, a butler who studies detective stories, and a reporter whose ears wiggle when he is close to the truth. Listen for a hairpin, a cigarette and a few crumbs of candle tallow.
Dla kogo. Readers who enjoy classic murder puzzles with a country house, a small suspect circle, a clever amateur and clues they can follow will love this book. It also suits those who like newsroom humor and romance woven into the crime.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
Joan comes home to a house that has changed
Joan Sheridan arrives at Greenacres a day early, bursting with the joy of coming home. She is about twenty-one, and she has spent a month in France. On the porch she sees a beautiful stranger with bronze hair asleep in a hammock.
Bates, the old butler she calls Daddy, greets her warmly, then falters when she mentions her room. Upstairs her mother tells her the news. Joan's stepbrother Kirklan has married a woman named Helen Banton a week after meeting her. Helen has also demanded Joan's beloved room above the river, and carpenters have cut a door to link it to Kirklan's.
Joan says in a muffled voice that she hopes he will be happy. In the east wing she weeps and admits that she loves him. When she sees Helen cross the lawn in white, her hurt turns into plain hatred.
A single homecoming can show how fast a happy household becomes a place of secret pain.
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A smudged letter brings the past to the door
Two days after Joan's return, Helen takes breakfast in her room.
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Lies and a guest tighten the knot
Back at Greenacres, Helen asks Kirklan for the thousand dollars.
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A crook slips through a detective's hands
Don Haskins sits in his room sure that Wednesday will bring the rest of his money.
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A night of fear ends with a scream and a shot
That night Helen sits alone, waiting for Kirklan to storm in with whatever Sarbella has told him.
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Bates and the doctor refuse to call it suicide
Bates argues that the open door and the scream prove murder.
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A reporter names the girl in the Sarbella case
Etta Griggs, the constable's daughter, telephones the city editor of The Star with news of the murder.
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Small clues and a stolen gun upset the case
Wiggly walks the bedroom and collects odd things.
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Lies, jealousy and love pull everyone off balance
Almost every person in the book hides something.
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How the story is told and what the mask means
The book is told in short chapters, each ending on a question or a shock.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Joan Sheridan A warm, quick-witted young woman who comes home from France to find the man she loves married to another, and she guards a painful silence.
- Kirklan Gilmore A gentle novelist and master of Greenacres who adores his new wife, values honesty, and is pushed to the edge by doubts.
- Helen Gilmore A beautiful bride of three weeks, headstrong and frightened, who hides a past she cannot afford to have discovered.
- Victor Sarbella An intense Italian-American illustrator and guest at Greenacres who carries a deep grief and a promise of vengeance.
- Wiggly Price A sharp New York reporter with animated ears who needs a great story to keep his job and trusts small clues.
- Don Haskins A once-smooth crook, now desperate and hunted, who needs a thousand dollars and has a hold over Helen.
- Sergeant Tish A round New York detective with a bandaged head who wants the man who beat him and trusts the obvious.
- Bates The old Gilmore butler, a devoted reader of detective stories, who soon argues that the apparent suicide is murder.
How it ends (spoiler)
Kirklan confesses at the inquest. After hearing a man's voice through the locked door, he confronted Helen, and in a struggle for the gun her own hand fired it. Believing her dead, he panicked. He packed a black vase with gunpowder and tallow to make a delayed bang that would give him an alibi. Joan, who found Helen dying and heard her say it was an accident, screamed. The jury returns a verdict of accidental death, and Joan and Kirklan marry nearly two years later.
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Pytania o Porcelanowa Maska
What is The Porcelain Mask about?
It is a detective mystery set at a Hudson Valley estate, where a novelist's bride of three weeks is found dead. A suspicious reporter, a crook on the run and a house full of secrets complicate the search for the truth.
Who is Wiggly Price?
Wiggly Price is a New York newspaper reporter called Wiggly because his ears move when he is excited. He arrives after the murder, recognizes the dead woman, and uses small clues to question the official explanation.
What does the title The Porcelain Mask mean?
The title points to something smooth and fragile that hides what lies beneath. It applies to a character's beautiful face and manner, and to a hidden object whose purpose becomes clear as the mystery unfolds.
Is The Porcelain Mask easy to follow?
Yes. The chapters are short, the dialogue is lively, and suspenseful discoveries keep the story moving. The humor of Constable Griggs and Wiggly Price keeps the investigation light, and the clues are placed where you can notice them.
Who wrote The Porcelain Mask and when?
John Jay Chichester wrote it. He died in 1950, and the story reflects the 1920s world of bootleg whisky, interurban trains and big-city newspapers, with a plot built on a secret marriage.
Zacytuj to wydanie
Chichester, John Jay. The Porcelain Mask. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-porcelain-mask.
Chichester, J. J. (2026). The porcelain mask. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-porcelain-mask
Chichester, John Jay. The Porcelain Mask. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-porcelain-mask.
@book{chichester2026porcelain,
author = {Chichester, John Jay},
title = {The Porcelain Mask},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-porcelain-mask}
}
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