Another well-plotted, highly entertaining thriller from Julie Clark!

I love a story told where estranged family members are forced together under uncomfortable circumstances. Clark captures this dynamic so well in the characters of Vincent Taylor and his daughter, ghostwriter Olivia Dumont.

Olivia takes on the job of ghostwriting her father’s memoir, picking though his scribblings and meandering writings, while navigating his dementia and declining memory. She grew up knowing her father had been tried and found guilty of the murder of his siblings when he was younger, even though he was never convicted in a courtroom.

The story is a slow-burn as we join Olivia slowly deciphering fact from fiction. The secrets are drawn out and the mystery is only solved at the very end, but I really enjoyed the slow reveals and felt the author did a good job of feeding her reader just enough juicy bits to keep them wanting more.

If you enjoy family drama, slow burn mysteries and unreliable narrators, I’d highly recommend this one!

*Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the digital arc. All opinions are my own.

What do you do when your job as a ghostwriter tanks, you"re on the brink of financial disaster but your agent throws you a life line. A famous horror author asks for YOU specifically, to finish his final book but there is a catch that only you know. This famous writer is your father who you've long ago cut ties with. What prevails: the need of money or the decision of estrangement made long ago?

The book he wants finished is his memoir of the family tragedy: both his siblings were murdered for which he was blamed. Why ask his only daughter to fulfill his need to disclose what he wants to reveal. Is he punishing her with this burden of revelation or in need of a family priest.

Olivia has so many hurdles to confront. She is forced to explain her own hidden fact that her dad is not dead as she has told everyone. The betrayed boyfriend who feels mislead and not trustworthy. The agent who nows sees dollar signs when the ghostwriter is exposed as his daughter. The dementia her father is now experiencing forcing her to distrust much of the tales he weaves and resulting in her resarching every minutiae in the narrative.

So many intracacies in all the relationships in her life, finding out what really happened, how she really feels about him and facing her own fears leads to a slow and suspenseful storyline.

A crisp thriller about a daughter chosen to ghostwrite her father's memoir. The catch is that he is a famous author and there was a murder in his family when he was young. Our character must sort through her dad's memories as well as other information she can dig up to get to the truth. The path to the truth is not a straight line but instead many twists and turns. Her dad is not a reliable narrator which causes a few red herrings.
Overall I enjoy Clark's writing style and this book was a fast read you didn't want to put down.
I did find the ending a tiny bit confusing as a lot of details came out in the final hour.
But definitely a book to pick up if you like this author.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Sourcbook and NetGalley for an early copy of this book. While it took me a little while to get into it after I began to see the pattern of what was developing. I was so invested in this book. Imagine trying to coax memories from someone with a degenerative memory disease, and also someone who has been lying about the past their entire life. As the truth came out. It was nothing like I thought it was going to be. I had some suspicions and they were partially correct. This was a really well done book and I enjoyed it. This Author is a Trusted writer and a must read in my opinion.

This was a solid suspense that kept me hooked early on. I suspected some of the twists, but not all. I enjoyed the writing even if the plot wasn’t a total standout from other books in the genre.

I really enjoyed the multiple POV and separate timelines involved. Such a complicated web of secrets and lies that Olivia is trying to untangle as she is ghostwriting for her father due to his Lewy Body Dementia diagnosis. I had a hard time putting this down!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for my ARC!

Julie Clark is an auto-read thriller author for me and I loved how fresh the premise of The Ghostwriter was. A slow burn whodunnit filled with family drama, a look into the publishing world (specifically ghostwriting which I found very interesting), and lots of unreliable characters. The dual timeline split between a 1970s small town dysfunctional family with lots of secrets to present day estranged niece and brother (aka father and daughter) of the victims returning to write a tell all on what really happened brought so many layers of family dynamics to the story.

There are lots of twists and turns that will keep you reading more. I loved the way the story of an unsolved small town mystery was slowly unraveled - there were many different theories that all felt realistic and the ending surprised me.

I thoroughly enjoyed the characters in this book. I felt like they were very well-written and they felt real. They were flawed but all just doing their best to deal with a terrible situation. This book had family drama and a plot that kept me guessing what the truth was, and I was fully engaged the whole time. Very well done!

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Decades long mystery that has never been solved. Only speculation. Sign me right up!
The characters were remarkable. The storyline intriguing with all the mystery surrounded this family. This book goes back and forth from the path and present as Olivia discovers diaries and video recordings to piece together what happened that fateful night. The twists and turns were great and I suspected just about everyone. The author does a great job and making you think it could be certain people.

This was just alright for me. It kept me engaged the entire time. I loved the idea of the story within a story. The main characters father being the center of a major murder mystery. The scenes when she is visiting home are both haunting and thrilling. The ending itself kind of fell flat for me. It reminded me of dark places by Gillian Flynn where there was a whole lot of build up and a simple conclusion.

Thank you sourcebooks for the arc! I was really looking forward to this one and the reviews coming out were so good but this was just ok for me. I just felt like this was so slow and so repetitive and overall I just didn’t care about the mystery or the characters. This just didn’t work for me overall.

This book was fantastic. I enjoyed the swaps between past and present. I was engrossed in both stories and invested in every character. I truly did not stop changing theories until the end of the book. I love the reveal so much, tragic as was. 5 stars well earned.

I loooooved The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark and her new novel, The Ghostwriter, did NOT disappoint! This is less of a thriller and more of a family focused mystery, but the pacing, reveals, and twists were excellent. I was hooked from page 1. Olivia is a struggling ghostwriter in desperate need of work, she takes a job writing a memoir for a famous horror author. Only she knows that this author is her estranged father who was accused of murdering his siblings in the 1970s. The pacing is perfect, the chapters are a mix of journal entries, videos, and different POVs that each reveal a little bit more of the truth. This kind of mixed media really propelled the reader forward to see what kind of evidence we would see next. I really enjoyed this story!

3.5 stars rounded up

Unreliable narrators are tricky but this played into the plot of the story perfectly. The different POVs worked well but the generational trauma from the incidents never really get addressed nor the fall out from the final reveal. Well paced and a really tragic story when you look at it holistically. Will def read this author again.

Olivia, a famous ghostwriter, has grown up with the fact that her father might have murdered his brother and sister. When he asks her to ghostwrite his memoir, Olivia returns to her hometown and tries to piece together her father’s questionable memories. The plot had enough twists to keep me interested and I enjoyed the side story of Olivia’s job and life. It was refreshing to read a mystery book that wasn’t predictable or formulaic. I will definitely be reading more books by Julie Clark! Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for this excellent read.

Fantastic. Julie Clark can do no wrong! This is slow burn literary suspense that should appeal to those who like dual timelines and multi POV. It's really fun to read a book and just know that you are in the hands of someone very talented. This book has plenty of emotional depth, and I found it to be hauntingly satisfying.

I really enjoyed this one. It was such a fun read with different points of view and timeframes that kept me hooked. I always like this author, and this one didn’t disappoint—plenty of twists, good pacing, and characters that pulled me in. The story kept me guessing, and I liked how all the pieces came together in the end.

Told with multiple perspectives and multiple timelines, Julie weaves us through the story of a 50 year-old murder.

Olivia, a ghostwriter, works with her estranged father for the first time in years to tell his story. The story of the murder of his brother and sister that he has been accused of.

With incredibly short chapters and cliffhanger, after each one, Julie kept me completely invested throughout the entire story. Each character had their own unique plot twist. Each timeline had so many things going on that kept me hooked.

This was definitely the perfect book to get me ready for spooky season! Unfortunately, it’s only August and it is still 95°. 🤣

Julie Clark delivers another gripping and emotionally layered story with The Ghostwriter. This novel pulls you in from the very first page, blending suspense, secrets, and the complexities of identity that is impossible to put down. The emotional stakes are high, and the twists are both surprising and satisfying.

Gripping from the first page, this book is hard to put down. And after seeing the print copy, I may have to add it to my shelf as well!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an eARC of this book.

I didn't guess the ending of The Ghostwriter which surprised me. Normally I do. The story kept me guessing and was well written but I got a little bored with the characters. Overall, it was a good book and I would recommend it to others.