Fantastic!!! I really enjoyed this! It’s really well plotted and had me guessing. I also enjoyed the trip back to the mid 1970’s. Highly recommend!

The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark upcoming
Publication date of June 03, 2025 by Sourcebooks Landmark
Woooo weeee what did I just read??!! This book was a first by this author and while I didn’t get through it as fast as I’d have liked(life got in the way) it was a very good book that most definitely kept me engrossed in the story. There were many twists and turns that kept me guessing all the way through and just when I thought i had it figured out BOOM nope I was wrong!
Loved the book, five stars⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ and I could actually see this one being adapted into a movie. I’d watch it. Suspenseful, family drama, with decades of secrets and lies!
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this early in exchange for a honest review.

It is always wonderful to find a new author that I love. This book was written so wonderfully. I could picture every scene in my mind as she worked her way through the story, and I always love a surprise ending. Well done. I am looking forward to reading more of Julie Clark's work.

THE GHOSTWRITER is a slow-burn twisty mystery/thriller. If you like stories with family secrets, unreliable characters, and plenty of shocking moments, this is the book for you!

Clark is a fantastic writer and an auto-buy author for me. The difference between 4 and 5 stars is because it was a little slow at the start and I was having trouble getting into it. I feel like it could've been tightened up a little.

⭐️: 4.5/5

The Ghostwriter had me hooked right from the first few chapters. Not only did it have a multiple POV, multiple timeline plot, which are my absolute favorite thrillers to read when done well, but it also had a main character who has feminist ideals and is currently struggling through a bit of a cancellation from calling out a misogynist for behaving badly, which immediately endeared me to her and made her easy to root for.

The interweaving of multiple POVs within the present and past timelines was done so well, and made it a great tie in to the memoir writing aspect of it, highlighting the discrepancies that are probably often inherent in the text of the memoirs we read and what actually happened in reality. There were so many twists and turns, and the resolution of what actually happened keeps you guessing right until the end. I absolutely powered through this book because I needed to get to the end and see the whole story unraveled.

I absolutely loved The Lies I Tell, and it was one of my five star reads the year it came out, which cemented Julie Clark as one of my favorite thriller authors, so this was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I can definitely say that this one definitely held up to the standard I was expecting!

Thank you to @netgalley and @bookmarked for providing this eARC for my review!!

Amazing read! Olivia Dumont is a ghostwriter and the latest job she is tasked with is to ghostwrite the story of her father, Vincent Taylor, who is a famous author, and the death of his siblings, Poppy and Danny, and what really happened to them. A lot of people thought that he might have been the one to kill them, but he had an alibi and was never charged and no one was ever found to be guilty of the crime. He is now suffering from Lewy Body dementia and has good days and bad days but the one condition that he has for the book is that Olivia is the person he wants to be the ghostwriter. She isn’t really sure she wants to take the job, but she agrees to try it out and in the end, is really glad that she did. She does her own research and doesn’t only use the notes that her father left for her and she learns some information that he had forgotten about or didn’t know about at the time. They go on to finish the book and it is a huge success and she is really glad that she took the job. I don’t want to give away too much information so I will stop with that but will say that it is a really good read and I recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher and/or author’s representatives that reached out and invited me to read this book for an honest review of the same.

This is the first book I have read by Julie Clark and it makes me want to read more of her books. The Ghostwriter had me hooked from the beginning! As I got halfway through, I could hardly put the book down. I enjoyed the flashbacks to 1975. It was interesting getting perspectives from then. Julie Clark handled jumping between timelines perfectly. It didn't feel jarring. It really felt like I was there piecing the clues together right along side Olivia. There were things that I guessed right, but some things I did not see coming! It's a wonderful book filled with mystery, secrets, lies, and loss. I would definitely recommend this book to people!

4.5 ⭐️
Olivia Dumont has spent years trying to stay far away from her family name. Even after her divorce, she kept her married name just to avoid being linked to her father, Vincent Taylor—a famous horror writer with a dark past.
Now low on cash, Olivia agrees to ghostwrite for her estranged, dying father. But it’s not another scary story—he wants to tell the real story behind the murders of his teenage siblings from 50 years ago, a case that’s always had a cloud of suspicion over him.
Olivia goes back to Ojai, reluctantly, and starts digging through her dad’s version of events—but is he being truthful?
Determined to find out what really happened to Poppy and Danny, she begins her own investigation into the past.
What follows is a gripping, twisty search for answers in a family mystery that refuses to stay buried.

I felt like the beginning of the book was kind of slow for me, but it really picked up around 40% and then I couldn’t put it down. I ended up really enjoying the story.
I would recommend this to friends.
Add it to your TBR list!
Release date 6/2/25

Thank you NetGalley and publisher SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for this free arc ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Julie Clark delivers again with The Ghostwriter. This is a multi pov that alternates between the 70's and present day.
Olivia is caught up in a legal battle that is preventing her from doing her job. Her father wants her to continue his book which details the truth of what happened so many years ago.Since, Olivia's father is ill, and since everyone believes he is guilty of murdering his siblings when he was young, he wants the truth to finally be revealed of what happened that fateful day.
Olivia can't really turn the offer down considering her current circumstances, so she accepts.

The Ghostwriter had me audibly gasped couple of times. I was engrossed in this book from start to finish. I don't have anything negative to say about it. What a pageturner!!

A big thanks to Sourcebooks and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Expected publication June 3, 2025

I liked the twisty that kept coming until the very end. However, the first part dragged a bit, I am glad I kept reading. I have a clear picture of the characters as reading.

The Ghostwriter is a gripping, haunting, heartbreaking suspense novel. It is also a novel about a family and its deepest, darkest secrets—the accusations, the guilt, the truth behind the murder of two teenagers. Olivia Dumont is a successful ghostwriter whose career is at an impasse, when she is asked to ghostwrite the memoir of a highly successful author—a man that is Olivia’s estranged father. As Olivia delves into her father’s story, will she finally understand why her mother left her, why her father sent her away, and will she discover who killed her father’s siblings? I was on the edge of my seat as mysteries are unraveled, sometimes leading to even more mysteries, as Olivia follows the trail of her father’s diminishing memory. Behind the murder mystery there are complicated and twisted emotions, so many lies, so many pieces to a very intricate puzzle. This is the perfect book for readers who love a mystery and who also love stories about families and relationships that are complicated and difficult. I received an advance reader copy of this book.

A perfect whodunit story wrapped up in a daughter's struggle to understand her family & reconnect with her absentee father. This was a well-paced, well-constructed story with multiple POVs from the past events. I especially enjoyed the journey of Olivia trying to understand her family while writing a compelling book on behalf of her father.

Another great thriller from Julie Clark! The chapters alternate between three narrators: Olivia, Vincent and Poppy from 1975 to the present. Olivia was ghostwriting a tell all with her estranged father. Olivia had quite the challenge writing this because her father's memory was spotty as he had a disease called Lewy Body Dementia. Olivia's father Vincent had a huge secret that he wanted to get out before he died. It was a secret in their family for many decades yet changed the trajectory of the whole family's future. Olivia was racing against time and her fathers deteriorating memory to find out what the secret was. As more details emerge from Vincent's memory his unpredictable behavior becomes even more disturbing. Will Olivia uncover the secret before her father's memory is gone or will the family's secret stay a secret for eternity? I enjoyed the suspense and how the details of the secret are slowly divulged.

Julie Clark has become one of my favorite authors over the past few years. Therefore, I was thrilled to get approved for an early copy of her latest, “The Ghostwriter.”

Set primarily in Ojai, California this book follows Olivia Dumont. She’s a ghostwriter and the only child of Vincent Taylor, a famous author of horror novels. He also happens to be the only surviving sibling of a tragedy that occurred back in June 1975. His older brother, Danny, and younger sister, Poppy, were found dead in the family home. Since then, he’s been considered the prime suspect by many in his hometown.

Olivia is asked to be the ghostwriter of her father’s latest novel. She accepts the work because she’s on the brink of financial ruin due to her public criticism the prior year of a fellow, male author. One other issue she has to overcome is that she’s been estranged from Vincent for several years. Upon arriving back in Ojai, she quickly finds out the book he wants to write is a memoir. He also wants to cover what happened to his brother and sister fifty years before, back in June 1975.

This book has three narrators – Olivia, Vincent, and Poppy. It flips back-and-forth between present day and 1975. It involves the process of Olivia writing the book, but also provides context to the events leading up to Danny and Poppy’s deaths.

Overall, I recommend this book. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC.

The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark
Holy buckets. This was done so well! I loved how it was written—so clever. The mix of past and present and the twist of facts and fiction was brilliant.

I was sucked into this book and could not find a place to stop reading. I loved the storyline, the character development, and the pacing. Everything about this was done so well.

It was easy to put myself in Olivia’s shoes, with how she chose to handle her upbringing and past- she did what she felt was necessary for her survival. However, the truth rarely stays secret, and the spotlight shines on her history.

My heart aches for Tom as he discovers that the woman he loved had been lying. He is not immediately interested in the why, and that is understandable but devastating.

My heart also hurt for Vince. He loved his life as an outcast in a sense. Succumbing to addiction and avoidance. Losing himself in a fictional realm that paved his way to building the walls he thought would keep his secrets.

Secrets are heavy. And they only get heavier over time. This was a tale so beautifully written that everything matters. There were no superfluous details, no fluff, and no filler. Everything mattered. The shadows. The secrets. The things in the background. And the truth was not the most obvious.

Brilliantly written, beautifully delivered, and emotionally powerful, this story is about truth, family, and redemption. Katy approved.

Publication date: June 3, 2025
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

3+

This is a book with ups and downs, but it was in general a refreshing read.

Olivia fell in disgrace in her career as a ghostwriter so when the offer from famous mystery writer Vincent Taylor comes to write his next book for him, she must accept. Even though he's actually the substance-abuser, neglectful parent who shipped her to a boarding school in Europe and never looked back. However, when she gets there, she finds out the book is a memoir to tell the public what he never told the police about how his two siblings died decades before. Only, his memory isn't the same, so it is Olivia's just to piece it all together.

The book is basically from Olivia's perspective, with a couple of chapters written from other character's, which are actually chapters from the book she is writing. So we have a narrator that is far from being trusted because she's also trying to find out the truth. I think this setup was the gem in this book. I love how we can't trust her father one bit but we're still willing to. The whole time I had no reason to trust him but I wanted to believe in him.

However, I think this book was very wordy. There were parts my mind flew away because of the superfluous narration. I may be a bad judge though. Still, I think there was a lot of cleaning that could be done to make the read more dynamic.

The other thing that got to me was the ending. The story in the ending itself was fine; it was even a good closing to all the questions raised. My problem was with the way it's shown. I'm sure the writer was going for that: show don't tell. But this made me confused about what was on the book the main character is writing and what was something for us real readers. and the answer, I could just conclude after reading what made more sense. It wasn't my favorite experience.

The backstory, however, is enticing. This is a tasty read for the summer, for sure.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

3.5 stars rounded up

Although I enjoyed this book, I found it to be repetitive, in turn became kind of boring. In addition, it was pretty easy to figure out what was going on in the background.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and honestly rate this book.

Olivia is a ghostwriter who has fallen into financial trouble and is offered to ghostwrite a book for a horror author, who just happens to be her estranged father. He is also suspected of killing his two siblings 50 years ago. While Olivia tries to get the book write, she’s also dealing with the relationship with her father and trying to figure out who killed Danny and Poppy. It’s a compelling page-turner.

Julie Clark had me guessing until the very end. With a massively unreliable narrator in Vincent, we have to assume, like Olivia does about her father, that everything he’s telling her about what he remembers is wrong. All the little clues and evidence she put throughout the book had me speculating the whole way through.

Thank you to NetGalley, the Publishers, and Julie Clark for an ARC of The Ghostwriter. I’ve been so excited to read this book - I absolutely loved The Lies I Tell and knew this one would be great also. I honestly felt so immersed in this book that it felt like it actually happened and couldn’t wait to be able to read more. I loved the character development and the way it captured you from the first page. I can say I truly had no idea how this was going to turn out. I loved the multiple perspectives and how the story was told was phenomenal. Julie has a way of telling a story that consumes you!

Olivia Dumont is a ghostwriter has spent her whole life trying to disassociate from being the only child of a famous horror author, Vincent Taylor. He is also famous for being the prime suspect in a murders of his siblings. Olivia got into some hot water is needing work asap before her life completely falls apart and one shows up at the right time. Except it’s for her father. Olivia agrees to help him and ghostwrite his last book, but doesn’t realize what’s all behind the doors of his past and must finally figure out what happened that night in 1975.