During her career as director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton, New York, Helen began writing mystery novels set in the art world. A widely published author of books and articles on art, she enjoys making up stories in which fictional characters interact with real people from her own background and experience as a New York Times art critic, NPR arts commentator, museum curator, and practicing artist. Her second novel, An Accidental Corpse, won the 2019 Benjamin Franklin Gold Award for Mystery & Suspense. An active member of Mystery Writers of America, she and her husband, the artist Roy Nicholson, live in Sag Harbor, NY, with the ghost of Roy's beloved studio cat, Mittens.