The Face in the Night

Covering for your sister can lead to the most unexpected of outcomes, as Audrey Bedford discovers in Edgar Wallace's 'The Face in the Night'.

Selling her chicken farm and relocating to London to join her stepsister, Audrey Bedford is arrested shortly thereafter, having been caught transporting the Queen of Finland’s stolen jewelry. Audrey decides to admit culpability and go behind bars for a year rather than "rat out" her sibling, who is in fact the true perpetrator of the crime. Once released, she takes on a position as scribe to the mysterious Mr. Malpas, who broods for days on end in his apartment and permits visitors to approach him no closer than from across a vast darkened room. When Malpas’ neighbour Mr. Marshalt is discovered murdered, Audrey rapidly finds herself ensnared in a web of missing diamonds, raging ill-forgotten feuds and a budding romance in the unlikeliest of places.

Wallace’s work has been adapted for the big screen many times with actors like Jack Black, Adrien Brody and Jamie Bell portraying characters from his books.

Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was an English writer so prolific, that one of his publishers claimed that he was behind a quarter of all books sold in England. An author, journalist and poet, he wrote countless novels, short stories, screen plays, stage plays and historical non-fiction. Today, more than 160 films have been made from his work. He died suddenly in Hollywood in 1932, during the initial drafting of his most famous work, 'King Kong'.