Happy New Year 2026, my friends!

To celebrate the end of 2025, I did something gloriously odd even by my standards: I studied English kings and tabulated their reigns by years and royal houses. Yes, I know—peculiar hobby. But I’ve always been a history buff. You should see the family trees and background tables I’ve built for my characters. That’s real shit.

Now, I won’t publish those yet. In my superstitious mind, revealing that material before all six Pekka Wall books are finished would provoke a catastrophe. So give me a year or two. In the meantime, enjoy the English Kings table—I’ve added it as a PDF to this newsletter.

What’s coming in 2026?

I made a few New Year’s resolutions, and one of them is big: I’m committing to complete Books 4 and 5 of the Pekka Wall saga. As I mentioned in my previous note, I wrote the first scene of The Māori Murders – Death of Dreams last week, on Tuesday. As always, I’m like a cat circling hot porridge before I dare a taste.

I tell myself, Not yet—it’s still too hot. And then comes the inevitable moment: I tip my tongue to the porridge and start writing. I finished The Triumvirate Murders on the 16th of August, and right after that, The Māori Murders went on a slow simmer. It took roughly four months to cool the porridge of thoughts, plotlines, and characters to a spoonable temperature.

And it tastes good. Honestly, I think I’ve written my snappiest opening scene so far.

Why the first scene matters (to me)

For me, the first scene is the key to the whole house. I try to plant every aspect of the story in that opener; the rest of the book is just unlocking what I hid there. Does that make sense? Let me show you the pattern.

•  In The Birthmark Murders, I introduced the key players—only three of them—because I was setting the plate for the porridge without overfeeding you.

•  In Handful, I added spice to Pekka Wall’s big story by bringing in Tuomas’s parents.

•  In The Triumvirate Murders, I wheeled in the Finnish establishment, all on their highest horses.

See the progression? I move from close-up to wide shot—expanding the scope from the individual to the churning ebbs and flows of society.

With The Māori Murders, I can finally write into systemic bias, discrimination, and marginalisation. But I won’t preach. My only non-negotiable (call it the thematic spine) is the relentless disgust for ordinary people who become monsters when they drink from the chalice of power, influence, and bigotry. I try to write about those who refuse the consensus of the mediocre and the leadership of the cruel.

Tones, keys, and the arc of everything

First scenes set tone:

•  The Birthmark Murders: introspection and sardonic melancholy.

•  Handful: hopeful and tender.

•  The Triumvirate Murders: tragicomedy and love.

•  The Māori Murders – Death of Dreams (Book 4): foreboding and tension, steering straight toward the series climax.

•  The Last Curtain Murders – Death as the Legacy (Book 5): an explosion of emotions and that irrational fear of life.

•  The Rural Child (Book 6): the mother of all prequels—the key to the big lock, explaining why Pekka did what he did. (A small nod to a certain Resebud.)

Line up those first scenes and you can smell the cinnamon I’ve sprinkled across the porridge—the arch of everything. That Christmas-y aroma is my built-in assurance that, no matter what, life is worth living and bigger than your intellect. If you have the courage to touch and be touched, the wisdom to accept yourself and others, and the guts to stand for justice and humanity, all is well in the world—eventually.

2026, ladle in hand

This time next year, I hope you’re holding two new books, with the last one cooling on the windowsill, ready for me to digest its premises and bring this saga to a close.

I hope you’ve got your porridge ready for the new year. Happy New Porridge—and enjoy every spoonful of your life.

Janus Lucky
www.januslucky.com

And rember to check these authors, too:

And here is just for fun a little video I so like

Get my books from below: