The DuGallan Chronicles

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All 9 books live now — a mystery for the child in all of us

The Series

About the Hughes Chronicles

Samuel Thomas Isaac Hughes was a real man. He arrived in South Africa from Wales in the 1920s, bred racehorses in the Orange Free State, created a remarkable herbal tea called Black Forest Tea, and vanished in the Belgian Congo in the late 1930s. His daughter Daphne carried the question of him through a long and full life. His grandson DuGallan is writing the books.

The Hughes Chronicles follows Daphne — from the age of fourteen — as she traces her father's trail across South Africa, Johannesburg, the Belgian Congo and the valleys of Wales. Every book is rooted in real places, real history, and a real family's unresolved mystery.

The Hughes Chronicles is based on a true family story. ST Hughes was real. Daphne was real. The trail is real. The locations are rooted in real history. Where the story needed wings to fly — it was given them. The mystery at its heart has never been solved.

Every chapter ends with new clues. Every book ends with a trail that leads directly into the next — written for the child in all of us — families, teens, and adults all find their way into the trail.

Love clue-trail series like The 39 Clues? See how the Hughes Chronicles compares →

Want the real story? Read The True Story of ST Hughes →

The flagship series

The Hughes Chronicles — All 9 Books

Start Where The Horses Ran — Hughes Chronicles Book 1, a South African family mystery adventure book cover
Hughes Chronicles · Book 1
Start Where The Horses Ran
Shannon, 1940. Daphne finds a tin trunk, a partial map, a pressed orange flower — and a note in her father's handwriting. The trail begins.
$9.99
The Man With Two Watches — Hughes Chronicles Book 2, a clue-driven family mystery adventure book cover set in South Africa
Hughes Chronicles · Book 2
The Man With Two Watches
Johannesburg, 1940. Daphne puts a face to CJ Barnard — the man with two watches. The second half of the map. The Welsh word DuGall. And the canary.
$9.99
The Bloemfontein Letters — Hughes Chronicles Book 3, a South African historical fiction book cover set in the Orange Free State
Hughes Chronicles · Book 3
The Bloemfontein Letters
Shannon, 1940. Three uncollected letters. A fourth that knows about the canary. And at the bottom, in handwriting Daphne would know anywhere: Croeso adref, Daffodil.
$9.99
Old Joseph's Last Secret — Hughes Chronicles Book 4, a Welsh and South African family mystery adventure book cover
Hughes Chronicles · Book 4
Old Joseph's Last Secret
Shannon, 1941. The formula is not two parts. It has always been three. The West Coast was always the missing piece.
$9.99
The DuGall Valley — Hughes Chronicles Book 5, a Welsh historical fiction adventure book cover for families
Hughes Chronicles · Book 5
The DuGall Valley
Wales, 1941. The yellow door. The 1743 book. Emrys who has been waiting three generations. The deep place where things come together.
$9.99
Not Yet — Hughes Chronicles Book 6, a family mystery adventure book cover based on a true story
Hughes Chronicles · Book 6
Not Yet
Shannon, 1946. A letter from a smudged Johannesburg address. Three words in ST's handwriting: Not yet. Wait. He is alive. Daphne's arc closes.
$9.99
The Brothers — Hughes Chronicles Book 7, a South African family mystery adventure book cover
Hughes Chronicles · Book 7
The Brothers
Johannesburg, 1964. The trail passes to Daphne's four sons. Four brothers. One unresolved mystery.
$9.99
The Barnard Son — Hughes Chronicles Book 8, a South African family mystery adventure book cover set in Johannesburg
Hughes Chronicles · Book 8
The Barnard Son
Johannesburg, 1966. Patrick finds RJ Barnard — son of the enemy — waiting on the right side. A file. A trust. A name larger than Barnard.
$9.99
From Gold to Coal — Hughes Chronicles Book 9 cover
Hughes Chronicles · Book 9
From Gold to Coal
City Deep, 1970. An old man at the races. An attorney who watched a horse run alone for years. One name — and the brothers find what ST left behind.
$9.99
Companion publications

Also from DuGallan

Ashes in Our Hands — a standalone family memoir book cover from DuGallan Publishing
DuGallan Publishing
Ashes in Our Hands
A moving meditation on love, loss and the fragility of life. For older readers and parents who want the deeper history.
$9.99
From Tins to Tables — South African family recipes and history, companion book cover to the Hughes Chronicles
Companion Publication
From Tins to Tables
Agnes May Warren's recipe book. A culinary thread through time. The real book that was inside the tins all along.
$9.99
A new way to read together

Read together — anywhere in the world

A grandfather on the West Coast of South Africa. A grandchild in London. Both looking at the same page on a video call, arguing about where ST went and why he left the clues he did.

One purchase. One flipbook. One shared screen. The trail runs between generations — exactly the way ST intended it to.

More on reading together across the miles →

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"Where did ST go next?
I think it was Wales."
The trail brings people together
The trail ahead

This is only the beginning

20+ books are planned across three generations of the Hughes family. Daphne's arc. The brothers' arc. The grandchildren's arc. The mystery deepens with every generation — and ST has never been found.

Browse All Books & Bundles → Find on Amazon → Read Free Chapter →
Questions families ask

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Hughes Chronicles based on a true story?

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, photographs and recollections. The mystery at the heart of the series — what happened to ST — has never been solved. Where the true story needed wings to fly as fiction, it was given them, but the people, places and unanswered questions are real.

What age group are these adventure books for?

The Hughes Chronicles is written for the child in all of us. The mystery runs deep enough that no reader — young or old — is ever ahead of it, and the clue-driven, chapter-a-night structure makes it a natural fit for reading together or reading solo. Families, teens, and adults have all found their way into the trail, drawn in by the real history and a mystery that never fully resolves.

What's included when I buy a book?

Every direct purchase from DuGallan.com includes both an ebook with flipbook included — a PDF of the full book to keep and read on any device, plus a Premium Flipbook edition with page-turn effects, accessed via a QR code and password inside your PDF. Payment is processed securely through Dodo Payments, and access is delivered immediately — no waiting, no shipping.

Do I need to read the books in order?

Each book resolves its own mystery, but every book ends with a Clue Keeper and a trail that leads directly into the next — so reading in order gives the richest experience. Series 1 (Books 1–6) follows Daphne's own search for her father; Series 2 (Books 7–12) follows the next generation continuing the trail. New readers should start with Book 1 — Start Where The Horses Ran, or with the free Prologue if they'd like a taste first.

How many books are planned?

Twelve books are mapped across the two current series — Books 1–8 are published now, and Books 9–12 are coming. Beyond that, the author's wider vision for the Hughes Chronicles spans three generations of the family and 20-plus books in total, as the search for ST continues with each new generation of searchers.

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