Q&A with HelenKay Dimon

 

 

 

 

HelenKay Dimon is the author of the new novel The Usual Family Mayhem. Her many other novels include Moorewood Family Rules. She lives in San Diego.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Usual Family Mayhem, and how did you create your character Kasey?

 

A: The Usual Family Mayhem is an ode to the breadth of family love and the inevitability of family messiness. I wanted to write about feisty grandmas and the bond between women who love and support each other, regardless of age.

 

And what’s better than adding in a few secrets, a bit of romance, and the possibility of grandma killing bad men with her delicious pies to round out a story?

 

I adore Kasey. She’s smart, loving, and loyal. She’s also impulsive and prone to acting before thinking. She’s not perfect. She doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life. She dropped out of law school. She hated her banking job and now is on the verge of losing a different job she’s not really qualified to do anyway.

 

Look, I love a super dedicated and driven heroine, but there is something so relatable and understandable about a woman who doesn’t have it all together. Writing about Kasey while she fumbled her way to success was my way of saying I’ve been there and I get it.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Kasey and her grandmother? What about between Kasey and Jackson?

 

A: Grandma Mags raised Kasey. They are so connected and love each other…and they’re so different. Mags is the motivated one. She’s practical and doesn’t tiptoe around what she thinks. She just says it.

 

She also loves Kasey for exactly who she is and is willing to give Kasey the time she needs to figure her life out. Of course, Mags also loves to direct things from behind the scenes and she’s really good at it.

 

Jackson’s great aunt, Celia, is Grandma Mags’ “very good friend” and that means Jackson and Kasey grew up around each other, vying for the older women’s attention.

 

He’s a wildly successful and overachieving lawyer. Kasey…is not. She’s also had a long-time crush on Jackson. They are the perfect opposites attract, mutual unspoken crush, bickering twosome.

 

Like Mags and Celia, I wanted Jackson and Kasey to figure it out and get together while they solve the mystery of the poison pies. I hope readers do, too.

Q: What do you think the novel says about revenge?

 

A: I think of the book more in terms of vigilante justice than revenge. Mags and Celia’s “special” pies aren’t about getting back at anyone. They’re about freeing women in desperate situations after all other avenues to do so have failed.

 

Women saving other women in unexpected ways is a theme in this book. Women who have been in danger and dealt with violence reach out and offer a last chance to other women in the same circumstance.

 

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well, I love Mags and Celia. I also think the justice system sometimes fails, and I say that as a lawyer. I’ll let readers decide if the women have gone too far.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I also write thrillers as Darby Kane. I just finished writing my sixth thriller, which likely will be out in early January 2026. I don’t have an official title yet but it’s about a family that goes missing then one member comes back 15 years later and chaos ensues.

 

I’ll be writing more Darby Kane thrillers and am gearing up to start plotting thriller #7.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Do you like desserts? If so, eat before reading The Usual Family Mayhem. Since Mags and Celia run a regional dessert business I felt obligated to research as many pies and muffins and cookies as possible. Quite a few of those delicious concoctions are mentioned in the book. I spent the entire four months of writing craving sugary desserts. So, beware.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with HelenKay Dimon.