All the chapters of 2025 have closed and The End has been typed on the year, but you know what that means? It means we have a new year filled with mystery in front of us. What will it bring? I know it will bring a new adventure for private investigator Pat because I have an outline ready to be brought to the pages of the next book in my PIP Inc. Mysteries series, but that’s the only thing I know about 2026. The rest of the year is a mystery.

   Oh, there is some foreshadowing I can see already and some clues, too …unless they turn out to be red herrings placed in my mind to make me think I know what’s happening when I really don’t. I’ve been promising myself and others to record books in audio form and 2026 is the year it’s going to happen. I told myself I was going to do this in 2025, but managed to find a million excuses not to, which is why I’m putting audio books in the foreshadowing category.

   I certainly hope 2026 progresses like a good cozy mystery which, of course, means there has to be a murder by the end of chapter two, aka February, but I hope it will simply be the murder of crows noisily taking over the trees by my house and not a real one. Unfortunately, 2025 resulted in the loss of a couple of friends; I hope 2026 doesn’t.

   There will need to be an amateur sleuth to investigate the happenings. I guess that would be me, finding my way through the new year one day at a time without any idea what the next day will bring.

   There will need to be sidekicks, interesting characters who pop into the year to add humor and intrigue and to share the adventures the year will bring. I have many of those characters around me. They turn up with snacks to share at my house on Mondays, weather permitting, to sit outside snacking and sipping margaritas. On Thursdays, I meet others for coffee in the kirk house of the sole church in the community where I live. It’s not a church sponsored event so local gossip, politics, and costumes near Halloween are all encouraged. Some of the people who turn up there are so quirky that they have been known to inspire characters in my books.

    And of course there will be recipes shared in 2026. Like in so many cozy mysteries, food is a big deal in my years. I still love the cookbook I edited where 128 cozy mystery writers shared recipes from their books.

   So happy New Year to all of you. I hope your year is a cozy delight and ends with a great resolution where all mysteries and problems are favorably resolved.