The Ghostwriter is the first book I’ve read by Julie Clark, and it impressed the heck out of me. Oliva is a ghostwriter wand though she doesn’t advertise it, she is also the estranged daughter of a famous horror author, who is well known not for just his horror novels but because he was once considered the prime suspect in the murder of his siblings. Now facing major financial problems, her father, who is dealing health issues, offers a lifeline, contracting with her to help write a memoir of that explores that time in his life around the time of his siblings’ murders. I absolutely loved Clark’s writing style. It pulled me right and the way she weaved the mystery kept me completely hooked from start to finish. 5 stars all the way. As I said this was my first time reading any of Clark’s work, but after reading this I have every intention of checking out her back catalogue. I only hope they are all as good as this one. Thanks so much to Sourcebooks Landmark for allowing me access to an ARC of The Ghostwriter.

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I devoured the last 50% of this book in the last 24 hours. I could not put it down.

Clark has written another banger of a suspense/mystery novel with inherited trauma and familial relationships. Her inclusion of her father having a devastating disease with cognitive decline and confusion added to the unreliable narrator trope. The setting of 1975 Ojai, California and the addition of a character from that time period and a main character in the present both being strong women interested in women’s rights levelled up the interest.

I had some suspicions confirmed but others were quite surprising—this makes for a very engaging read for me.

I think readers will thoroughly enjoy The Ghostwriter and if you haven’t already read The Lies I Tell and The Last Flight, I encourage you to pick them up as they are winners.

Thank you to @bookmarked and @netgalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinions. The Ghostwriter published this week and is also a Book of the Month club pick.

I downloaded this widget right away after liking Clark’s earlier books. More of a slow burning mystery than suspenseful thriller, but still gripping. Multiple POVs slowly reveal most of the ‘truth’.
Poppy was the standout character; so full of life, while MC Olivia was smart, but unremarkable.
If you like a solid mystery that revolves around a devastating tragedy and long held secrets grab this now!

Vincent Taylor is the only surviving child when his siblings are murdered in their home. When a suspect in not apprehended, many believe Vincent may be responsible for the murders, but he was never charged. As an adult, Vincent is a prominent horror author with a daughter of his own. Olivia is Vincent's estranged daughter and a financially troubled ghostwriter. When Vincent decides to share the story of the night of his siblings' murders, he hires Olivia to write the book for him. An unpredictable, domestic thriller told in two timelines.

Siblings, serious, and shatter.

A ghostwriter has taken on a new book contract. Her estranged FATHER, YES, is ready to tell all about the night that 2 of his siblings were brutally murdered. Because of the father’s illness, Olivia must do a lot of digging on her own to complete this task. My only complaint is that it got really dark the 2nd half. This was necessary to solve the crime committed. This book is edgy, makes you question the thought process of her sick dad, and I love the lines of bravery crossed with profession and family. Julie Clark had written another page turner!

Thank you to
NetGalley
Sourcebooks landmark

Also good ones I have enjoyed by Julie Clark:
The Last Flight

Olivia has established a good reputation and career for herself as a ghostwriter when she is ranked by a public comment to a misogynist. Then an opportunity comes up, to write the latest book of a Stephen King-level horror writer, who also happens to be her estranged father, thought by many to have killed his siblings as a child. From this great premise, this book does everything I want a thriller to do; it sucked me in, kept me turning pages, and steadily built momentum until all was revealed. I found this a very satisfying read with all the groundwork laid for several realistic potential outcomes. Plus, I saw an edition at my bookstore with very cool sprayed edges, a nice bonus.

This was such a fantastic read. The pacing was great, and there were so many twists and turns that kept it intriguing. There’s an unreliable narrator, who isn’t actually the narrator, that struggles to remember the past events. The dual timeline is done well and connects the pieces of the mysterious puzzle they’re solving.

If you’re in the mood for a binge-worthy family drama thriller, this one’s definitely worth a try.

I was scrolling through NetGalley, checking out the new arrivals and saw The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark. I haven’t read any of her work, but I was intrigued by the premise of the story. Julie Clark was able to grab my attention from the opening pages and keep me engrossed in Olivia’s story until the very end.

Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont is having financial problems, so when she was approached to ghost write her father’s memoirs, she said yes.

Her father, Vincent Taylor, a famous horror writer, has Lewy body dementia, which creates difficulties when it comes to figuring out what is true and what is false. Olivia will have to face her father’s past. His family had been murdered and he was the only one left standing. That fed the rumor mill. Was he involved? Did he kill them himself?

We float from past to present and I loved Poppy as much as I loved spending time with Olivia.

I quickly became involved in Olivia’s story, watching the past unfold, wondering what was true and, even when the story was finished, was it the truth? I love an author that can keep me flipping pages, unable to put the book down, having to know, having to reach the end and have all the secrets exposed.

I love when I find a new author to love, keeping my eyes open for new books to come.

See more at http://www.fundinmental.com

"The Ghost Writer" is a captivating suspense thriller that expertly weaves a nonlinear plot, adding layers of complexity and intrigue. The overlapping storylines contribute significantly to the tension, keeping readers on the edge of their seats as Olivia, the main character, delves into her father's mysterious past. The narrative is beautifully crafted, resembling an intricate spiderweb—delicate yet powerful—drawing you deeper into the story with each turn of the page. The way the pieces come together is both surprising and satisfying, making it a must-read for fans of the genre. Overall, it's a thrilling journey that keeps you guessing until the very end. Highly recommended!

I received an advance reader copy and in turn I am leaving an honest review.

I did not like Olivia. Her biases really hampered her in figuring out what became fairly obvious to me well before the big reveal. I had far more sympathy for Vincent, both as a kid struggling to be understood and receiving absolutely no support from his family and that end, and as a man trying to connect with a daughter who had told herself so many stories about him that she forgotten what was true.

Ghostwriter is getting rave reviews, and likely for good reason! However, it didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

There’s a lot going on with this book. Family drama, personal drama, work drama, historical drama. Lots and lots of drama. At times it was hard to follow and some of my investment in the story got lost in the drama.

I wanted more focus on the actual mystery at hand - who killed Vincent’s siblings 50 years ago? I didn’t love Vincent’s character - now or then - and the sibling and girlfriend drama felt overdone and at times unnecessary.

I also didn’t need all the present day drama. Olivia’s story was complex but her drama entirely of her own making and it got a little tiring. The issues between her and her partner added no value to the story. And while the conflict between Olivia and the other ghostwriter was interesting and added real value to the narrative, there was so much other junk going on that it was a little overshadowed.

Finally, the book starts out with a preface about how much research was done into the setting - Ojai. There were caveats that any mistakes were Clark’s alone and she tried to do the setting justice. That preface had me excited to learn about Ojai and get invested in the locale. That did not happen. This book literally could have taken place in any town in America and I had to read another review to even recall the name of the town.

Admittedly, this review is reading a little harsh. And I’m clearly the outlier. It’s not a bad book by any stretch. It just isn’t good enough for it to be memorable. Like what even happened to Poppy and Danny? Idk don’t ask me!

Thanks for the copy Sourcebooks!

Julie Clark is an auto-buy author for me at this point. I’ve loved every single one of her novels, and The Ghostwriter is no exception. This one has a more emotional edge than her usual fare, but it still had me riveted. I loved the premise: a woman ghostwriting her estranged (and infamous) father’s final novel while confronting the bloody family secrets he built his fame on. Yes, please. The main character, Olivia, was guarded and sharp, yet complex and relatable. I was deeply invested in the mystery at the novel's heart, and I found the ending surprising and satisfying. I'm pissed at myself for waiting so long to dive into this one, but once I started, Clark’s twisty storytelling wouldn't let me go until I'd turned the final page. Fantastic read. 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.

2.5 stars, rounding down. I really wanted to love this one—I’ve been a fan of Julie Clark’s other books (The Last Flight and The Lies We Tell were both hits for me), so I went into this with high hopes. Unfortunately, it just didn’t land. Thank you to the publisher for the free ebook to review.

The pacing felt slow, and then when things finally picked up, the reveal (especially the 1975 piece) was so convoluted that it lost me completely. I don’t mind a twisty thriller—I actually love being surprised—but this one crossed into the territory of unbelievable, and not in a fun way.

And to be honest, none of the characters stood out enough to keep me invested. Everyone was just kind of… fine. Nothing to hate, but nothing to love either.

I hate when a thriller falls apart in the last stretch, and this was one of those cases. Bummer.

A MUST READ. I love love love an unreliable narrator. This was incredible, I could not put it down. A small-town mystery, a famous author with secrets and a phoenix rising from the ashes career recovery.

An interesting story with a unique premise, I’m afraid the hype I heard around this book built up expectations that were hard to live up to for me. A slower burn than previous Julie Clark books, this book was an ok read for me but I wished it was more.

What pry tell, would I say that? For one, I guessed the whodunit aspect of this book early on. Yes, there were a few times when I thought “maybe I’m wrong”, but it wasn’t often and didn’t last that long. I think anytime you know what the ending will be in a thriller, even if the writing is good, there’s a bit of disappointment at its conclusion.

Second, I think the premise of Olivia revisiting her past, especially the games she played, had so much promise. There were snippets of hope as we delved into this, but I felt there was a lot of potential that wasn’t explored. I kept screaming “what else is in those notebooks!” But beyond the first glance we got nada on them even though there were 20 of them even after we find out there was more to them than we initially thought. Instead we got periphery interviews that I thought didn’t necessarily help the story.

So why three stars? Well, because the writing was good. I enjoyed the flashback parts. I really liked Poppy and enjoyed hearing her thoughts. I liked the story of Olivia and her father working together and finding new ways to communicate around their challenging past, even if I also early on guessed what caused their rift. The story was also not bad at all..again, I just went in hearing how shocking the ending was, and it wasn’t shocking at all for me. It left me looking for things that I wish were done differently rather than thinking about the twists and turns I didn’t experience. In terms of thrillers, I don’t think fans will be disappointed with this one as long as they haven’t heard too much about it going into it.

—Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I appreciate the opportunity!—

Wow! This was a masterpiece. Very well written and masterfully crafted. There weren't too many characters, it wasn't too complicated and it kept the pages turning quick without increasing my heart rate. Loved it!

Olivia Dumont, originally Olivia Taylor, has spent two decades purposefully estranged from her father the once renowned mystery writer, Vincent Taylor. Vincent’s drinking and drug use were out of control when she lived with him, but the fatal component to their soured relationship was his ability to ignore the fact that his brother and sister were brutally murdered when he was a teenager.

Twenty years later, she’s contacted by her publicist with an offer she can’t refuse. Vincent Taylor wants her to Ghostwrite his final novel, a memoir about himself and what truly happened the night of Danny and Poppy’s deaths.

What begins as a personal journey into her fractured family history slowly transforms into a tense psychological exploration of what really happened leading up to the murders. Olivia peels back layers of long buried secrets, revealing a story that is as much about inherited trauma as it is about the stories we choose to tell or silence.

The writing is quietly evocative, with a steady build-up that rewards patient readers. Olivia is a compelling protagonist; guarded, skeptical, but driven by the desire to learn the truth. As she reconnects with her dying father, the shared emotional weight is heartbreaking.

The Ghostwriter succeeds as a slow-burning literary mystery, one that lingers long after the final page.

I enjoyed this story and was excited after reading the premise. I felt it was a slow burn so hard to go back to at times. Definitely a slow moving story with interesting twists and the ending was fantastic!

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks for my ARC of this story which published 6/3.

Olivia Dumont is a ghostwriter and the only child of Vincent Taylor whose teenage brother and sister were brutally murdered in their home on June 13, 1975. The murders were never solved but that didn’t stop the rumors from circulating that Vincent was responsible. Vincent goes on to become a famous bestselling author and now 50 years later after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, decides to ask his daughter, who is now estranged from him, to help him write his memoir. Vincent finally wants to tell the story of that day in his own words.


Written with dual timelines and multiple POV, we learn what happened to Vincent’s brother and sister, Danny and Poppy, on June 13, 1975, when, attending a carnival, they both went back home for unknown reasons and were savagely murdered. Olivia uncovers hidden film reels from Poppy’s camera that were filmed during the weeks leading up to the murders and slowly puts the mystery together with the help of her ailing father.

Clark’s storytelling is flawless, and I found myself savoring each chapter, following along with the timelines and different points of view while forming my own opinions. Vincent is a deeply flawed character, and I went from despising him to caring for him after I learned what made him the way he was. I loved Poppy’s chapters and when her life was ending, I cried for her. Nothing was what it seemed, and I felt the ending was perfectly executed. THE GHOSTWRITER will go down as one of the best thrillers I have ever read, and I will forever be recommending this book to thriller fans.

Thank you @bookmarked for the early read and to @julieclarkauthor for writing this brilliant story.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark via Netgalley for the ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Taylor family is devastated by the murder of their two children, Danny and Poppy, leaving behind just one child, Vincent, who is being blamed for their murders. Years later a well known horror author, Vincent hires a ghostwriter Olivia to write his memoir of the night his siblings were murdered telling the truth about what really happened that night. Olivia has spent her life hiding the fact that she is the estranged daughter of Vincent and that Poppy and Danny are her Aunt and Uncle.

I loved this book. I loved the back and forth in time jumps, the suspense of figuring out what actually happened to the siblings Poppy and Danny, the comeback story of Olivia and how she deals with her family history. The whole book kept me captivated and I did not guess the plot twists. Definitely top of my favorites for the year!