Nothings brings family together like attempted murder.

There are three things Jayshree Devi can count on happening at her annual family reunion: 1) her cousins will forget she exists, 2) her aunts will try to set her up, and 3) her uncles will get into a fight. What she doesn’t expect? An accident that lands her grandmother in a coma, throwing the family—and their matriarch’s sizeable fortune—into chaos.

When Jay discovers Grand Mom’s “accident” might not have been so accidental after all, she’ll have to dig through decades of secrets to find the truth. With the help of her (annoyingly perky) cousins and one of their (annoyingly hot) friends, Jay finds herself knee-deep in a mystery that’s even more tangled than her family tree.

But the closer Jay gets to answers, the closer she gets to finding her place amongst the relatives who once felt so distant. With Grand Mom’s life and fortune hanging in the balance, can Jay save her family and maybe hook up with a hottie while she’s at it?

Dinesh Thiru is a writer and stay-at-home dad currently living in Barcelona. He grew up in North Carolina, married his college sweetheart, and spent over a decade in San Francisco. Dinesh is half-Indian, half-white. He loves the ocean. He used to have other interests, but he swapped them for kids. Those kids are eight, five, and a dog.

We asked Dinesh about his familial inspiration behind My Killer Family Reunion, some of his favorite Indian food, writing BIPOC stories, and what readers hope to take away from his new book.

You open the story by saying every big Indian family wants to kill Grand Mom. Can you dive into how this opening came to be? What are some of your personal connections to this that may have inspired you?

Well, I wouldn’t say EVERY big Indian family. It just so happens that THIS big Indian family (which is inspired by my family!) wants to kill Grand Mom.

So where did that absurd idea come from? A few of my inspirations:

The “unkillable” matriarch — My Indian grandmother lived to 103. She was an absolute force in our family, commanding her entire household from a single plastic chair in the main room. She lived this huge life—reading poetry to Gandhi, surviving decades in extreme poverty—and I’m so proud to add the smallest part to her legacy.

The morbid humor — My white grandmother, Grandma Edie, used to joke that she’d like to be cremated, stored in a carton of Edy’s ice cream, and kept in our freezer forever. Instead, my mother spread her ashes at the beach, only for grandma to be blown back in my mom’s face and all over her clothes! I’ll never forget my mother calling me, hysterically laughing as she recounted the day.

The inheritance drama — My Indian great-grandfather was one of the wealthiest men in Bangalore, India in the 1930s. But he had a falling out with his family, and he cut his 12 kids from his will! He gave all the money to charity, which I think is amazing, but the family lost it. Needless to say, the inheritance drama in my family is real!

Are there any pieces of your own family that may have inspired this fictional family? If not, what are some parts that draw you to this family?

So many! Beyond what I shared above, here are a few more:

The house — Is it a good idea to exactly replicate your aunt’s house and plan murders there? Sure, you feared her creepy basement and its plush white carpet, but is this the way to process? Will she ever let you into her home again?? These questions are not answered.

The coat-closet hookup — Facts: My cousin once hooked up with her boyfriend, in a closet, at a family reunion. The aunties totally busted them. And now that’s the opening scene in my book!

Jayshree as a middle cousin — I remember having the distinct realization that my older cousins were partying in the basement, and I wasn’t invited. I’m more of a loud mouth, so I wasn’t finding my voice like Jayshree, but her experience as a biracial, lost-in-the-middle cousin—that’s me. Hernando’s entrance — The arrival of our love interest is based on the first time my wife (then girlfriend) came to a family reunion. My aunties took it super seriously and held a pooja in the doorway to bless her. They waved a silver platter, sang Tamil prayers, and my cousins died of laughter in the background.

There are quite a few mentions of Indian cuisine in My Killer Family Reunion. What is your favorite Indian sweet and snack? What are some stories connected to them?

Can I pivot this to my favorite Indian food? I’m more of a savory person, but I specifically placed my aunt’s rasam into the book as this is one of my family’s most treasured dishes. It’s a spiced-tomato broth with cumin, tamarind, mustard seeds, dal, cilantro, and twenty other spices. The thing is an actual elixir, and we slurp it up after every meal.

In the Acknowledgments, you talk about how you had many family reunions that inspired parts of the book. What are some memorable stories that didn’t make that cut that you’d like to tell readers?

You’re really giving me free licence! Many of my favorite family stories involve performances (see below). We don’t have any in this book, but fear not—this is all Sequel MaterialTM.

• At my cousin’s wedding, we re-wrote the lyrics to Afroman’s Because I Got High, reenacting my cousin’s life story for 300 conservative Indians.
• At my other cousin’s wedding, we sang the Nelly hook “Must Be the Money!” to explain why my cousin married into her husband’s rich family.
• At my father’s 70th birthday, I re-wrote the Gettysburg Address to commemorate his life: “Two score and ten years ago, my poor father set foot upon this continent, in desperation, seeking a degree in computer science, and fearful of the proposition that he may add up to nothing at all.”

What do you hope readers take away from My Killer Family Reunion?

Honestly, I hope readers just have a ton of fun with the wildly dysfunctional, but highly lovable Devi family. This book is a love letter to my own family, and personally, I think they’re pretty great.

Legal disclaimer: All characters are fictional, any resemblances of murder suspects to my actual family members are ENTIRELY coincidental.

In a world that is striving towards telling more BIPOC stories, what is something that you’ve learned about yourself when you were drafting and now that this book has been published?

Wonderful question! I’m half-Indian, half-white (like Jayshree), and growing up I had lots of experiences that made me feel like I didn’t belong. For example: I’m Indian, but I feel like a tourist in India. Or as a kid, when we’d go to a restaurant, the host often looked at my family and asked, “Are you all together?”

Writing this book was a beautiful way to get behind those emotions. Feelings that Jayshree has like, “I’m Indian, but not quite Indian enough” are real feelings for me (even as an adult!), and I hope that other biracial readers or even other American-born Indians will connect with Jayshree’s emotions, and recognize for themselves that—we are all enough, exactly as we are.

Will you be picking up My Killer Family Reunion? Tell us in the comments below!

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