If your family loves clue-driven mysteries, hidden family secrets and a trail that runs across many books — here's a series with all of that, plus one thing The 39 Clues doesn't have: a real, still-unsolved mystery in a real family.
The 39 Clues became a favourite for families for good reason: short, clue-ended chapters that beg to be read just one more time; siblings working together to solve puzzles their family has kept secret for generations; a sprawling, multi-book trail across real-world locations; and a format built for reading aloud together rather than alone. The Hughes Chronicles was built around exactly the same appeal — with one difference. Every clue in this series points toward a mystery that is real.
ST Hughes was a real Welsh racehorse breeder who arrived in South Africa in the 1920s, created the real Black Forest Tea remedy, and vanished in the Belgian Congo in the late 1930s. His daughter Daphne was real. His grandson DuGallan is writing these books from her family's actual papers, photographs and memories. Where the true story needed wings to fly as fiction, it was given them — but the central question, what happened to ST, has never been answered. Readers aren't just enjoying a story. They're following a case that's still open.
ST didn't just live adventurously — he hid his initials in every location he visited. The books do the same, hiding real clues in plain sight for families who like to dig even deeper than the main story. Read about the Shannon Coincidence →
Begin with the free Prologue — Durban Harbour, 1937, a ship, two hundred shoes, and a man who laughed at exactly the wrong moment — or dive straight into Book 1, Start Where The Horses Ran.
In format, yes — short, clue-ended chapters, a running Clue Keeper, hidden family secrets, and a trail spanning many books, all built for reading together. The biggest difference is what the trail is actually about: the Hughes Chronicles' central mystery is based on a real family and a real disappearance, not an invented one.
Yes. ST Hughes was a real Welsh racehorse breeder who arrived in South Africa in the 1920s, created the real Black Forest Tea remedy, and vanished in the Belgian Congo in the late 1930s. His daughter Daphne was real, and his grandson DuGallan is writing the books from her family's real papers and recollections. The mystery at the heart of the series has never been solved.
Like The 39 Clues, it's a family read-aloud series, written so the adult is never ahead of the child. Most families read it together from around age 8 and up, though plenty of adults read it solo too, drawn in by the real history and the unsolved family mystery.
Start with the free Prologue if you'd like a taste first, or go straight to Book 1 — Start Where The Horses Ran. Each book ends with a trail that leads directly into the next, so reading in order gives the richest experience.
Nine books are published now, with Books 10 to 12 on the way — twelve in total across two series. The author's wider vision for the Hughes Chronicles spans three generations of the family and 20-plus books as the search for ST continues.
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