This was a great slow burn mystery! The twists happened right at the end, so if you like that, you’ll enjoy this. The twists were believable and if you love a slow buildup with twists shocking you at the end, this is your book! Loved it!

Review posted: 6.2.25

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

I’m a HUGE fan of first lines/paragraphs. They may not make or break the book exactly, but they add a bit something. And the first few lines in The Ghostwriter def added that lagniappe.

Having loved Julie Clark’s other books (The Lies I Tell and The Last Flight), I felt I was in for a great treat with The Ghostwriter, but I may have underestimated how much I did enjoy it.

What I liked:

The cover is HOT!

Olivia. I thought she was such a well-written, fleshed out character. From her struggles with her dad in her earlier years (the struggle between the magic of their relationship at times vs the times she felt abandoned by him) to her triumphs and struggles as a ghostwriter. One dimensional she was not!

How the story was laid out- the scenes of 1975 and the current day, with some current events tying in the story. I was never quite sure when some stories were being revealed as to how true they were because Victor was a good storyteller.



Bottom line: I predict this book will be on many “best of” lists of 2025.

3.5 stars. This is my first time reading a book by this author, but I have been interested in reading several of her books. I would describe this book as a contemporary mystery with shades of a gothic murder mystery. This story takes it's time getting to the answers that we are seeking and you question some of the information you are given. I don't mind a slow burn, but at times I felt like it was a little too slow. I do look forward to reading more of this author's books. Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this ARC.

Olivia Dumont finally has a possible assignment after messing up her career as a ghostwriter. She jumps at the chance until she learns that the subject is Vincent Taylor, the very successful horror writer and her estranged father. No one in her life knows of their relationship. When he was a teenager, his siblings were murdered. It has been rumored for years that he took their lives.
What a story! I received an advanced reader's copy of the book from the publisher through NetGalley. This is my own unsolicited opinion of the book. It grabbed my attention right away. Even when I wasn't reading, I was wondering about the characters and who did what. Olivia's anger toward her father is outweighed by her need for income and repair to her career. This is an excellent story about assumptions, tragedy and family dynamics. It certainly had me feeling anxious at times while reading.

I learned about Lewy Body Dementia while reading this. It's very sad. This may be a trigger for some readers.
Alcoholic parent
Foul language

Another fantastic thriller from Julie Clark!

Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont returns to her childhood home and the father she’s spent her adult life distancing herself from. Olivia’s father, Vincent, is deteriorating from Lewy Body dementia and will only allow his daughter to write the account of his siblings’ murders. The dual POVs and timelines are instrumental in setting the tone of the novel. The twists are exciting and unpredictable. The story starts a little slow but the pace picks up between the 1/3 and 1/2 mark, making it hard to put down until the end!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the opportunity to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks for the EArc in return for an honest review.
This story follows ghostwriter Olivia Dumont. She's excepted a job to write renowned horror author Vincent Taylor's final book. She doesn't want to do the job but shes in financial trouble and needs the money. Another reason she doesn't want to write this book is because Vincent is her estranged father who was accused of his siblings death.
Vincent's final book will be about what happened to his siblings in June 1975.

Told in past and present timelines, we get breadcrumbs leading us to the truth.
I loved this book. The author did a great job to transport the reader back to 75. The political climate, the trends, and the music of this time lay the foundation of this brilliant story.

I absolutely loved The Last Flight and I’ve been looking forward to this one ever since. It did NOT disappoint. Julie Clark is so skilled at hooking her reader and keeping them turning pages. I couldn’t put this one down- I needed answers.

The Ghostwriter is the story of ghostwriter, Olivia DuMont- really Olivia Taylor. She has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of Vincent Taylor who was accused of murdering his siblings in the 70s. But did he really do it?? She is offered the job of ghostwriter on a very secretive, special project: writing her father’s memoir. As the story progresses, though, all is not as it seems. Or is it?

This book kept me guessing and second guessing throughout the entire story. At many points throughout, I thought I might have figured it out, and no. No, I did not. This is a must read. Thank you to NetGalley and to Sourcebooks Landmark for this early read of The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This thriller kept me up late into the night, trying to figure out the true story behind the murders of a brother and sister fifty years after the events took place in Ojai, CA. The unreliable narrator is the surviving sibling, Vincent Taylor, a famous author who was suspected but never charged with his siblings' murders, now unable to write his memoir due to a debilitating cognitive disease. He recruits his daughter Olivia, a formerly successful ghostwriter, who hasn't spoken to him in several decades, to share his story with the world. As Olivia tries to piece together the truth behind her family's tragedy, she also must face how this secret trauma has infiltrated every aspect of her life, no matter how hard she tried to compartmentalize her past. Two timelines and multiple POVs, past and present, make this a complex, interwoven mystery that left me trying to figure out the true story until the very last pages. A great summer read. Highly recommend!

Oh my! I was delighted to receive an advance copy of Ghostwriter from NetGalley. This could be misconstrued as a whodunnit, but is so much more. A tragedy and a dysfunctional family combine to lead the reader on a journey with many twists and turns. As a reader becomes invested in conjuring up their own theories only for, the plot takes another unexpected development. I thoroughly enjoyed everything about the book!

I absolutely loved this book. When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. I love the different POV from journals, films, manuscripts and personal accounts. This hops back and forth from the 1970's to present day to give a full picture view of the events that occurred. I loved the concept of this book and it didn't feel like a book written within a book, sometimes those can be a lot. This was more of the writing process and discovering what took place during that time. It was very mysterious and had you thinking it was multiple people throughout the book.

Highly recommend giving this one a read. I've read others from her via audiobook and really enjoyed them. But, this one was my favorite from her!

Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark for the early copy!

The Ghostwriter is a psychological thriller. The story follows Helena Ross, a renowned romance novelist who has just months to live. Determined to write one final book, Helena decides to reveal the truth about a tragic event that has haunted her for years.

As Helena races against time, she hires a ghostwriter to help her complete the manuscript. The novel unfolds through Helena's confessions, revealing layers of deception, guilt, and the devastating impact of her lies. The book progresses and is filled with unexpected twists and reveals shocking truths piece by piece. The book was heartbreaking and thought-provoking that keeps you guessing until the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the advanced copy.

Very interesting premise and a "fun" read as far as thrillers/mysteries go. For me it was a constant changing of my mind between "yes he did, no he didn't" and I love that in my stories. It just adds to the dread factor and makes for an enjoyable mystery ride.

I went into this book expecting more but I just never really connected with the characters. The story never grabbed me and I was just never very interested. Vincent was never a sympathetic character and his daughter Olivia was somewhat boring. Together they couldn't drum up interest in trying to figure out what happened years ago.

In the summer of 1975, Vincent Taylor's teenage brother and sister were murdered during the end-of-school carnival in Ojai, California. As rumors and suspicion swirled about him, Vince leaned into his infamy becoming a renowned horror novelist. After decades of literary success, substance abuse, and bad behavior, he decides it is time for the truth about his siblings' murders to be made public in a memoir. The talent behind dozens of memoirs, Olivia Dumont is contacted to ghostwrite Vince's book. A publishing pariah after speaking out about another ghostwriter's misogyny, Olivia desperately needs the job. One hitch, Vince is her father and they've been estranged since he dumped her at boarding school in Europe as a teenager. Back in her hometown, Olivia is up against an unreliable source and a truth murkier than anyone imagined. I thoroughly enjoyed The Ghostwriter and cruised through it in a day (and 5 minutes the next day because my iPad died with 2 pages to go!)

The Ghostwriter is a brilliant thriller premised on what we remember, what we have seen, and the truth. The main character, Olivia Taylor Dumont, is a ghostwriter who reluctantly accepts a project for financial reasons. The glitch — the subject interested in hiring her is none other than her estranged father, Vincent Taylor, a famous horror author. Despite his talent, a cloud has always followed Vincent after his younger sister Poppy and older brother Danny were brutally murdered at home in 1975, leaving Vincent as the sole surviving sibling and the presumed killer.

As it turns out, Vincent does not want Olivia to ghostwrite a novel for him, but a memoir based on the murders. However, Olivia soon learns that her father is an unreliable narrator as he is dying from Lewy Body Dementia, and his version of the facts does not match up with what Olivia has gleaned from witnesses and other evidence. But all is not as it seems, and it is up to the reader to solve the mystery with not only the evidence accessible to Olivia, but also contemporary accounts from Poppy, Vincent, Danny, and Olivia’s mother Lydia, that Olivia has no access to. The novel powerfully questions what the reader really knows about the truth, both inside and outside the novel, as well as the corrosive power of secrets long after the truth is left untold. 5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for providing me with a complimentary advanced copy of this book.

It's soooo good. Like finish it in 2 days good. My first book by Julie Clark and I'm definitely going to read more!

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the advance copy.

A slow burn, who-dun-it thriller, but more so why?
Why would someone kill two teenage siblings?
So many suspects and fifty years later, the killer is still unidentified.

Vincent Taylor, once a celebrated horror novelist, has spent decades living under the shadow of suspicion for the brutal 1970s murders of his teenage siblings. Though the police cleared him, the public never did. His estranged daughter Olivia, who has carefully built a new life under a different identity as a successful ghostwriter, has long tried to escape the haunting legacy of her family’s past. But when Vincent reaches out with a surprising request, for Olivia to write his memoir and help him finally tell the truth, she is pulled back into the mystery that shattered her family. As Olivia digs deeper, long-buried secrets surface, forcing her to confront not only what really happened that night, but also the lasting impact on her family and the person she has become.

The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark is a smart, suspenseful read that hooks you from the very first sentence. It is a story filled with secrets, shifting identities, and the emotional weight of past trauma. The dual timeline structure is executed well, gradually revealing just enough to keep you turning pages late into the night.

The characters are richly developed and intricately connected. Though Vincent is far from the perfect father, I found his character compelling... mysterious, flawed, and uniquely endearing with his habit of communicating through scavenger hunts, which added a fun layer to the story. The book also offers a nostalgic journey back to the 1970s, a time marked by debates over women’s rights, the normalcy of hitchhiking, and the novelty of video cameras.

Slow burns have a tendency to drag down the storyline, but this book kept my attention and kept me guessing until the very end. I love a book with dysfunctional family dynamics and this one did not disappoint. You don't know what is true, if memories remain accurate over time and who you can fully trust.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this novel!

In this story there are many secrets and lies to unravel, made all the more difficult by the fact that Vince Taylor has Lewy Body Dementia and his memory isn't reliable. The story is told from the povs of various characters in a series of flashbacks as well as Olivia's current-day investigation. I really liked the story and the characters and the ending, although not a total surprise to me, was satisfying. This is the first book by Julie Clark that I've read although I have a couple of others on my to-read list which I hope to get to sooner rather than later.

TW: There are some triggers that readers should be aware of including rape, abortion, pedophilia. harm to an animal (cat), although none are terribly graphic.

Thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark, via Netgalley, for the opportunity to read this novel. All opinions expressed are my own. This review will be published on Goodreads and on amazon.ca on June 9, 2025
Publication Date: June 3, 2025

Olivia is a ghostwriter who spent her career hiding the fact that she's the child of horror author Vincent Taylor, famous not only for his novels but for being suspected of the murder of his siblings. When her career is spiraling, she reluctantly agrees to ghostwrite her father's last book.

This mystery is told with multiple points of views and a dual timeline, helping you piece together what happened to Vince's siblings 50 years earlier and questioning the truth. There's a lot going on in the story that took me a little to get into -- lots of personal drama mixed with dysfunctional family dynamics — but ultimately it's like a puzzle, sifting through fact or fiction, I enjoyed the ride. I especially loved the chapters from Poppy's view. It wasn't as fast-paced as Clark's previous novels, but I enjoyed it overall as it kept me guessing until the end.

The perfect slow burn family drama/thriller for your next beach vacation. It was both a light read and had enough of a suspenseful, twisty plot that kept me coming back and eagerly flipping the pages.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing an advance digital copy in return for an honest, unbiased review.