The Jade God
Free public-domain edition — preview in your browser, no account required for the first chapter.
Preview free · sign up to save progress, download to your shelf, and sync with the apps
Already have an account? Sign in
This book offers a gripping blend of psychological suspense and occult horror, exploring how love and sacrifice can confront the lingering shadows of the past.
Edition details
Book Summary
When John Derrick moves into Beech Lodge, he becomes entangled in the lingering evil of a murder and a stolen jade god from Burma. As occult forces manipulate the living, Derrick must uncover the truth, confront his own fears, and destroy the malevolent artifact to break its hold.
John Derrick and his sister Edith move into Beech Lodge, a house haunted by the unsolved murder of Mr. Millicent. Derrick feels an eerie connection to the study, where the previous tenant died, and soon discovers a small jade god—a stolen idol from a Burmese temple—that seems to exert a malevolent influence. The household staff, including the gardener Martin and housekeeper Perkins, harbor secrets tied to the murder and the god. Derrick investigates with Sergeant Burke, uncovering a web of guilt, occult power, and colonial exploitation. A mysterious peddler named Blunt, who speaks in chants and knows the god’s origins, is found dead with a kris. Martin confesses that his wife killed Millicent under the god’s influence, and Derrick frees him. As Derrick and Jean Millicent fall in love, he destroys the jade god in a sacrificial act, but the evil lingers: Mrs. Millicent later commits suicide, and Martin disappears. The novel ends with a broken tile in the study, suggesting the past’s enduring power.
Reading guide
Go deeper in The Jade God
Character guides, themes, chapter companions — plus Character Web, narrative arc, and theme heatmap teasers that unlock fully beside the text in BetterReads.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
Derrick’s psychological whirl and Martin’s shift from silent, fearful contemplation to a “new look” and awkwar…
Perkins
Perkins stayed on at Beech Lodge after the Thursbys left, and Jean Millicent recognizes her instantly as part of the house itself. She is a queer woman, best left alone, as Martin warns with a meaningful touch to his forehead — yet her unconscious babbling in an Eastern tongue becomes a thread Derrick cannot ignore. Her presence keeps the cottage's buried history alive, making her a quiet hinge between the household's daily life and the mystery beneath it.
John Martin
Martin tends the Lady Hillingdons and Richmonds with a tradesman's competence, but his mottled face and clenched fingers betray a tension his master reads easily. Twice proven a liar about whether he has met the mysterious peddler before, he stiffens at any mention of Eastern languages or of Perkins, insisting she is best left alone. His hidden history with the Orient makes him the story's most watchful and dangerous presence in the early arc.
Edith Derrick
Edith watches her brother closely as the novel stalls and the strange events accumulate, saying little but missing nothing. She is practical where he is occult — she scrubs panels, worries about dilapidations to the Thursbys, and urges him not to burden young Jean with what is grim. Her steady, slightly cheeky presence anchors the household and gives Derrick the one person who can laugh him out of his own darkness.
Jean Millicent
Where her mother bows to fate with hopeless wonder, Jean reads the blow as deliberate and feels the power behind it still at large. She is drawn back to Beech Lodge against every instinct of avoidance, sensing the house is somehow glad to see her, and she alone recognizes the jade god's significance when Derrick reveals it. Her resilient, questioning mind makes her Derrick's true ally as the mystery deepens.
Sergeant Burke
Burke receives Derrick at the station with the official's suspicion of the amateur, but interest overtakes him before the interview ends. He is dogged, silent, and honest about his failure, qualities that make him useful rather than obstructive as Derrick reconstructs the night of the murder. His willingness to reopen a closed wound gives the investigation its official foothold in the middle stretch of the book.
Mr. John Derrick
Derrick came to Beech Lodge for quiet and a novel, and instead inherited a study where a murdered man's presence lingers and a hidden panel yields an image from Burma. He matches wits with Martin over flower beds and Hindustani, pockets a wax copy of the god, and stages a dangerous reconstruction in the dead man's chair. His restless curiosity and willingness to chance what is not his drive the story's central investigation.
The Occult and Supernatural
The jade god is a central object imbued with malevolent power, influencing characters' minds and actions, and the narrative explores psychic phenomena, haunted atmospheres, and the belief that objects can absorb and radiate evil.
Fear and Paranoia
Characters are driven by irrational fears, secret suspicions, and a pervasive sense of threat, with the jade god and the house itself generating an atmosphere of dread that distorts perception and behavior.
The Power of the Past
The unresolved murder of Mr. Millicent and the lingering influence of his possessions, especially the jade god, haunt the present, forcing characters to confront secrets and traumas that refuse to fade.
Love and Redemption
The developing romance between Derrick and Jean offers a counterforce to the evil and fear, with love providing hope, safety, and the possibility of breaking the cycle of violence and occult influence.
Reading tools
BetterReads is more than a book page—e-reader, AI beside the text, audiobooks, and native apps in one system.