Book junkie Kylie Kaden knew writing was in her blood from a young age, sneaking onto her brother’s Commodore 64 to invent stories as a child. Raised in Queensland, she spent holidays camping with her parents and two brothers on the Sunshine Coast, inspiring the costal settings in her novels.

With a surfing-lawyer for a husband and three spirited sons under her wing, she is the only female in a house of males, and stays sane (and avoids the housework) by making things up for a living. A fascination with human behaviour led Kylie to study psychology at university. Despite earning an honours degree in the field, she says it helps little in wrangling her sticky brood of boys, and can typically be found purging out the day’s fermented thoughts on her laptop (sometimes in the laundry so she won’t be found) while the washing mounts around her.

Kylie was always an ‘indoor girl’ and credits starting to write to one of her favourite authors – Marian Keyes. As a teenager she remembers sliding her dog-eared copy of Watermelon across the table for signing, squeaking out ‘I’d love to write a book, but don’t think I have a clue where to begin’. In her guttural Irish accent, Marian Keyes looked up and said ‘Don’t think; just start.’ And twenty years, two degrees, and three children later – with only a vague premise in her mind and a clunky keyboard at her fingers, she did just that.

Her breakthrough debut Losing Kate took shape while on maternity leave from her day job, as she sipped tea at the kitchen bench, often with a toddler on her lap and ABC Kids chirping in the background. Her first manuscript was plucked from the slush pile of a major publisher and later translated internationally. Missing You, was published in 2015 to critical acclaim.

Drawing on her study of the human condition, Kylie loves to place flawed, relatable characters in complex relationships , find extraordinary in the ordinary, and ask the question – why do good people do bad things?

The Day the Lies Began (August 2019) is a thought-provoking tale in which the role of hero and villain is murky, leaving readers uneasy about which character to side with, and forced to look within their own conscience for clarity. Published by Pantera Press, it marks her debut in the domestic thriller genre.

One Of Us, her latest novel, was published to critical acclaim, in May 2022.

After the Smoke Clears will be released in 2023.

Her third novel THE DAY THE LIES BEGAN Launched August 2019.

One Of Us Launched May 2022

And watch this space for After The Smoke Clears – expected in May 2023!

Kylie is also appearing and running a workshop on Domestic Noir writing at the Capricorn Writers Festival in Yeppoon (Queensland) in 2-4 June 2023 – more info can be found here

Follow @KylieKadenAU