7 h 1 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 1 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In a city where you can invent a past, how do you know whose face to trust?
Arthur Hornblow’s The Mask brings mystery and deception into the drawing rooms of Edwardian New York. This is a city of newcomers, new money and curious eyes, where a person can arrive without a past and build another. Behind the face shown in public lies the question that drives the story: what is being hidden, and why?
A false identity puts more than one reputation under pressure. Friends, lovers and rivals can find themselves caught in a lie they do not understand. Hornblow brings his experience of the theatre to a tale of clear scenes, strong turns and rising tension. The pull comes from watching appearances strain under the weight of secrets.
What you’ll discover
- A face that hides Follow a mystery built around the uneasy distance between public appearance and private identity.
- New York before the war Enter a city where newcomers can build fresh lives and leave their pasts behind.
- Drawing rooms under pressure Step into society rooms where uneasy secrets make the work of keeping up appearances harder.
- The cost of deception Consider how one hidden identity can draw friends, lovers and rivals into its consequences.
- A playwright’s sense of tension Enjoy clear scenes and strong turns that favour mounting suspense over long inward reflection.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this book if you like fast crime stories with hidden twins, scheming villains, diamond fortunes and a young detective on the trail, all set in glittering early twentieth century New York.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A fortune unsettles a loving home
- Helen knows the man she loves
- A lost brother changes the journey
- Keralio turns separation into doubt
- Kenneth meets his own face
- The homecoming feels strangely wrong
- Instinct questions what appearances seem to prove
- Love faces the question of identity
Who’s who
- Kenneth TraynorA tall Wall Street promoter with a white lock in his hair who sails to South Africa to bring home two huge diamonds.
- Helen TraynorKenneth's devoted wife, who trusts her instincts and fears for her husband and her young daughter Dorothy.
- RayHelen's lively younger sister, who loves mysteries and jokes about marriage while falling for Wilbur Steell.
- Wilbur SteellA rising New York lawyer and old friend of the family who starts to suspect that something is wrong.
- Signor KeralioA smooth fencing master with a criminal past who wants the diamonds and cannot forgive Helen for refusing him.
- FrançoisKenneth's French valet, a furtive man who once worked for Keralio and listens at doors.
- Handsome JackA ruined gambler on the diamond fields who is the image of Kenneth and wants what Kenneth has.
- Dick ReynoldsA young lawyer with a gift for detective work, set by Steell to follow Keralio.
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- Large print hardcover
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The Mask in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Mask
A starving gambler in the South African veld meets a man with his own face, and a million dollars in diamonds.
Easy read2–5 hours to read2 languages
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In short
A starving gambler in the South African veld meets a man with his own face, and a million dollars in diamonds hangs between them. That is the spark of The Mask, a crime novel by Arthur Hornblow, set in Edwardian New York and the diamond fields of Africa.
The Mask at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 5 min3 h 15 min fast, 4 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 57,800 words
- Library level
- Easy short sentences, plain words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Breakfast, a Diamond, and a Dread
The story begins in the Traynor house on Gramercy Park. At breakfast, Kenneth Traynor, a Wall Street promoter, reads a dispatch from London. A giant diamond of 1,649 carats has turned up near land his Americo-African Mining Company already owns. Kenneth must sail on the Mauretania the next day and bring the stones home himself. A single stone is worth nearly a million dollars.
His wife Helen cannot eat. She says this trip feels different from his journeys to Mexico and Alaska, and she cannot shake the sense that something dreadful will happen. Kenneth laughs and says he hopes something does, since that is why he is going. If the deal goes through, they will be as rich as Croesus.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 30 min
- Level
- Easy read
Cite this edition
Hornblow, Arthur. The Mask. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-mask.
Hornblow, A. (2026). The mask. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-mask
Hornblow, Arthur. The Mask. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-mask.
@book{hornblow2026mask,
author = {Hornblow, Arthur},
title = {The Mask},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-mask}
}
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What is The Mask by Arthur Hornblow about?
It is a crime novel about Kenneth Traynor, a New York promoter who goes to South Africa for two giant diamonds. A twin brother he never knew, a scheming fencing master and a loyal wife become tangled in the plot.
Who is Signor Keralio in The Mask?
Signor Keralio is a polished fencing master in New York who is also a criminal in disguise. He is obsessed with Helen Traynor, and he works with the valet François and plots to seize the diamonds.
What does the mask in the title mean?
The mask points to disguise and false identity. People in the book hide behind polished manners, a servant's politeness, blue glasses or a borrowed face, and the story asks how well anyone can see through such a mask.
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