'The Valley of Ghosts' squarely plants you smack-bang in the middle of a tiny close-knit aristocratic English town that is beset by more than just ghosts alone, as he is all too quick to discover. The guilt-ridden past and present of the town's inhabitants together with the ever-growing restlessness of the "ghosts" transforms the plot into a wild goose chase of buried secrets intertwined with blackmail, love intrigues, and shady under-the-table dealings. The mysterious murder around which the story revolves and the troubled lives of the town's residents lend many levels of complexity and suspense to this detective tale, which is why it is perhaps not surprising to find it was later adapted into a silent movie in 1928. In fact, Wallace's work has been adapted for film many times with actors like Jack Black, Adrien Brody and Jamie bell portraying characters from his books.