The Valley of Secrets Hardcover - 2005

From the publisher

Stephen Lansbury is an orphan. He thinks he has no relatives at all -- until the day a letter arrives telling him that a distant uncle is dead. Suddenly Stephen finds himself the only heir to a great estate in the countryside. So Stephen sets off to claim his inheritance...but when he arrives, there is nothing to greet him at Lansbury Hall but a mystery.

The puzzle is as tangled as the vines on the hall's front gate, but two things are clear: Stephen's uncle kept to himself, and none of the townspeople know he's dead. But why then does Stephen feel that something or someone is in the house? Curious tracks glisten through the kitchen table dust, food in the pantry keeps switching places, and Stephen swears he saw a dark figure lurking outside in the dense woods. To escape the slightly creepy feeling that someone is around, Stephen starts to read his great-uncle's diary. And as he learns about his great-uncle's journey through the Amazon jungle nearly seventy-five years before, a fantastic truth unfolds. Soon Stephen is sure: While the mystery of Lansbury Hall is stranger than he could have imagined, it's not nearly as incredible as the reality....