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HelenKay Dimon is the author of The Usual Family Mayhem, which is available now.
HelenKay Dimon is a former divorce lawyer with a dual writing personality. Her books have been featured in numerous venues, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Cosmopolitan. Her most recent release, Moorewood Family Rules, has been optioned by Paramount for television. She also writes thrillers as Darby Kane and is a #1 international bestseller in that genre. Two of her thrillers have been optioned for television, including her debut, Pretty Little Wife. For more information go to helenkaydimon.com
The Usual Family Mayhem really has it all: it’s filled to the brim with eclectic characters who are up to no good, hilarious hijinks, messy family dynamics (ahem—Grandma is poisoning abusive men with her pies), there’s a queer element at play as Grandma lives with her “best friend,” and a healthy splash of romance. This title is sure to delight readers across the mystery, romance, and contemporary genres!
Let’s get to know HelenKay as she talks favorite novels, where she finds her story inspirations, a preview of The Usual Family Mayhem and more!
What are some of your favorite novels?
The list is so long. I read across genres and enjoy nonfiction when I’m getting close to deadline. I love destination thrillers by authors like Lucy Foley and Lucy Clarke. Really, I’m going to pick up any book with an Agatha Christie And Then There Were None vibe. I also love thrillers that challenge how I think about the thriller genre, like those by Alyssa Cole, Ashley Winstead, and Jennifer Hillier.
When did you know you wanted to become an author?
I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania and come from a long line of factory workers and coal miners on my mom’s side. Becoming an author wasn’t on my radar. I made up stories in my head but never dreamed about writing them down or potentially showing them to anyone. It’s almost as if the dream of being an author was too big to imagine…so I went to law school.
While working and getting ready for trials, I still created stories and read widely. I entered a contest on author Lori Foster’s website based on three pages I’d written. Lori chose her favorites, the finalists, and sent them to her then-editor at Kensington, Kate Duffy. Having my pages picked by a New York Times bestselling author and read by an editor kickstarted my belief that, maybe, I could actually write a book. My husband encouraging me to go for it gave me the final shove I needed.
Where do you find your story inspirations from?
Everywhere. I’ll read articles or see something or watch a person walk down the street and an idea will form. I wrote a book called Moorewood Family Rules about a family of con artists. I got the idea after watching Ocean’s 8 and thinking, what if when a con artist got out of prison she then went home to clean up her con artist family’s mess rather than run another con? And a book was born. I have a notebook filled with ideas because if I don’t write them down when I think of them, they disappear. I’ve used bit and pieces of ideas for many books over the years.
What can readers expect from The Usual Family Mayhem?
In The Usual Family Mayhem, Kasey goes home to the women who raised her—her grandmother and her grandmother’s “best friend”—to convince them to let her take their regional dessert business national. The women aren’t interested because that dessert business has a little secret side activity that could get a lot of people in trouble.
When Kasey digs around she begins to think the older beloved women in her life are in the business of making poison pies to kill bad men. Kasey enlists the help of her long-time crush and complete opposite, Jackson, to help her find out the truth and keep the women out of prison. I think of the book as a combination of family messiness, feisty grandmas, romance, mystery, and poison pies.
What was your favorite chapter or part to write?
There is a scene where Kasey returns to her grandmother’s house after a night out, wearing Jackson’s bathrobe and nothing else. She fumbles her way through an explanation. It was fun to write and play with the stereotypes we sometimes have about older women. These women are vital and they “get it” and they aren’t ashamed or watching what they say, and I loved showcasing that.
What are you currently reading and what’s on your TBR (to be read) list?
I just finished revisions on a thriller that will come out early 2026. While writing, I stockpiled a bunch of books to read after and am racing through them right now. My current read is The Surf House by Lucy Clarke. This one is out in the UK but doesn’t come out in the US until May. I couldn’t wait, so I bought the early UK copy.
I’m looking forward to a lot of upcoming releases—so many!—including The Death Of Us by Abigail Dean, Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang, Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, No One Was Supposed To Die At This Wedding by Catherine Mack (I loved the first in this series, Every Time I Go On Vacation Someone Dies), and Saltwater by Katy Hays.
