Patrick James Hughes writes fiction set in Ireland, about inheritance, obligation, and institutions that have outlived the reasons for them.

Aoife Crawford came home to bury her grandmother and stayed for the paperwork. Jean kept one of the seven wards of Belfast, a job with no title, no wage and nobody obvious to hand it to. Now a child has gone through a gate that should not open, the books have been wrong for a hundred years, and the only person left who can read them is the one who swore she was finished with all this.

Samhain, book one of eight
On Amazon from 1 October 2026

The eight books of the series

Patrick James Hughes writes fiction set in Ireland. He has written for newspapers and journals since 1996, sang in Riverdance and, later, with Anúna. He lives in South Armagh.