From the Virgin Islands to Horror Fiction’s Rarest Space, Kevin Hughes Releases ‘Patches’

Readers who enjoy the supernatural horror genre have a new offering from Virgin Islander Kevin Hughes, his second published novel.  Patches is a story about a family who moves to a new town amid a backdrop of personal tragedy, and adopts a pet that turns out to be way more than any of them had ever bargained for. After horrific murders begin to occur in the Smiths’ new neighborhood, suspicions fall on the family's adorable border collie, adopted from the local pet shelter. While Corporate Climbing, Mr. Hughes’ debut publication, drew from Caribbean traditions of black magic to drive its plot, the underlying mythology of Patches comes from the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Mr. Hughes said that the novel required copious research, during the course of which he learned the roots of the Romani people. “They originated from India, and then some of them, a group of them, moved to Romania,” Mr. Hughes shared. “Every book that I have, there's a lot of research that I put into it, and the r...