In 1975, two siblings are murdered. The surviving sibling is subsequently suspected for their demise, but is never charged. Years later, his daughter is secretly hired to ghostwrite his memoir. He is ready to talk about what actually happened. But it doesn't really seem like he is. He is pretty shady about who she can talk to and who can know she is writing the book. Very interesting plotline!

This was a slow burn thriller that kept me entertained. It wasn't a book that I had to finish in one sitting, but there was enough "substance" to keep me entertained.

I found myself reading longer than I intended each time I sat down with this book. The universal desire to understand our parents and to imagine their lives before we existed was taken to another level in this story of a woman piecing together what happened on the worst night of her father's life.

And the main character is a ghost writer, so she is literally piecing it together as she helps her gravely ill father write his memoir. The book can't be finished until she figures it all out.

The author does a good job keeping us jogging along behind the MC, learning what she does, and figuring it out with her.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!

Vincent Taylor lost both of his siblings to a violent crime in his teens. Many still believe he killed them. Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her whole professional life hiding the fact that she is Vincent Taylor’s daughter. After taking on the wrong cause. Olivia is down and out. Her career is suffering and she’s on the verge of losing her home. Out of v the blue she gets a request to ghostwrite her father’s memoir. Something she is loathe to do, but she’s desperate. It’s been years since she’s had contact with her father. After fifty years is it finally time for the truth to be told? Is she prepared for the outcome? When she meets her father she finds out he’s suffering from dementia. It’s up to her to ascertain what memories are real and what are not. Will she finally get the answers she seeks or are they forever out of her grasp. Fast paced and totally engrossing, this was a great read. Once again, Clark doesn’t disappoint. Thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

A tightly woven plot that includes a fifty years old murder mystery kept me engaged. The main character is a product of childhood neglect but is portrayed with strength and resilience. The clues to the murderer were dealt out in small doses and will keep readers turning the pages. A solid 4 stars!

I really enjoyed this slow burn mystery for most of the story. I went in not expecting a thriller, which I had seen other readers initially expecting based on the author’s other books. I was very happy with how the story was unfolding. But then when the story was coming to an end and we get to know what really happened 50 years ago there was a very large ick piece that dropped my enjoyment of the story drastically. When the final resolution was revealed I increased my rating somewhat because I didn’t see it coming.

I know this review is quite vague but anything else would lead to spoilers. But feel free to DM me about the ick factor.

Thank you Sourcebooks for the gifted ARC through NetGalley.

Rating:
I liked it

What you’ll find:
Multiple POVs
Dual timeline
Daughter ghostwriting for estranged father
Solving a 50 year old family murder

✨Review ⬇️✨

👻 The Ghostwriter 👻
By Julie Clark

💕 Thank you to booksandchai for sending an an advanced copy my way.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🔎I feel like I can finally take a sigh of relief now that I’ve finished this book. This was intense! I could not put this book down, finishing it in less than two days. Someone needs to turn this into a movie! I went into this book without knowing much, I had heard a lot of people talking about it so I wanted to know what was going on, and there was a lot going on.

🔎If you enjoy getting to the bottom of things and solving a mystery, you should definitely pick up this book and follow along as Olivia asks questions that demand answers.

🔎This book was released on June 3rd, but please read it soon so I have someone to talk to about this book!!!

💬 June, 1975.  
The Taylor family shatters in a single night when two teenage siblings are found dead in their own home. The only surviving sibling, Vincent, never shakes the whispers and accusations that he was the one who killed them. Decades later, the legend only grows as his career as a horror writer skyrockets. 
 Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of Vincent Taylor. Now on the brink of financial ruin, she's offered a job to ghostwrite her father's last book. What she doesn't know, though, is that this project is another one of his lies. Because it's not another horror novel he wants her to write. 
 After fifty years of silence, Vincent Taylor is finally ready to talk about what really happened that night in 1975.


Read this if you like:
🔎 Mystery
🔪 Solving murders
🖊️ Writing
🏠 Estranged family
🤫 Secrets
🎥 Multiple POV and timelines

Decided to take another chance on Julie Clark since I loved The Last Flight, but did not care for The Lies I Tell, and I am so glad I did! The Ghostwriter is SO GOOD! I had to go out and buy a physical copy after reading it.

First, I love a good alternating POV, it just keeps me more engrossed in the story. The Ghostwriter not only alternates POVs, but also alternates timelines (present and 1975). Present day follows Olivia, a ghostwriter, who is down in her career because she chose to publicly call out/question another famous ghostwriter. On the precipice of having to sell her home, and having to pay thousands of dollars on legal matters, she receives a call from her agent to be a ghostwriter for her father, a famous author (except no one knows she's his daughter). She begrudgingly takes the job, only to find out her dad has early onset dementia.

The book Vince Taylor is writing is supposed to be a memoir about how his brother and sister were murdered in 1975, where everyone believed he did it even though he had an alibi. The alternating POVs begin once Olivia starts to talk with her father and begins digging through old items. From the 1975 timeline, you get the POV of Vince and the POV of Poppy. This book had me guessing what happened the whole time! I partially guessed the ending but there are some curveballs in there. Highly recommend this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

I loved Julie Clark's The Last Flight and The Lies I Tell and this is another excellent one. Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire career hiding the deep, dark secrets of her tragic family. In 1975, the brother and sister of Olivia's father Vincent, a famous and very successful horror writer, were found brutally murdered in their home. For years now, people have suspected that Vincent killed them. Olivia's career is ruined after a disastrous incident with another famous writer, so she's in dire straits and about to lose her house. Her father is now seriously ill, so Olivia reluctantly agrees to ghostwrite his last book thinking it would be a horror novel. But after 50 years of not wanting to discuss the murders, her father now wants her to tell his version of what happened in 1975. Olivia wants to get to the real truth, no matter what story her father wants to tell. "Information is power, yes. But it's also a burden because once you know something, you can't pretend you don't." Julie Clark's writing is so good and the book is hard to put down. Thanks to #netgalley #sourcebookslandmark and #julieclark for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
3.75 stars
Olivia Dumont is a ghostwriter whose career is on the skids. Unbeknownst to most, she also happens to be the daughter of an infamous novelist who has long been the suspect in the murders of his brother and sister 50 years prior. And now he's asked her to ghostwrite his memoir. Despite having no relationship , and having not been in touch in any way for years, it's a paycheck she can't turn down.

I am a very picky thriller reader, and Julie Clark's books have worked for me without exception. They are fast moving and fun but smart- definitely a cut above. My actual preference in this larger genre is slow burn suspense, and I found that to be a better description of this latest book of hers. The problem for me is that I was hoping for fast moving and fun! For slow burn suspense, I think I need a little more literary and little less thriller. This is most definitely personal taste and not reflective of Clark's writing or storytelling. This was creative premise with good character development and a smart story well told. However, I did not find it terribly twisty or unexpected and had in fact guessed most of the mystery. That said, this is well loved so far and I completely understand why! I will continue to read anything she writes for a dependable, well written mystery

Julie Clark, author of the wonderful THE LIES I TELL, is back with a four-star thriller about family secrets, mending relationships, and the lengths people will go to to protect the ones they love. Famous author Vincent Taylor has lived with the shadow of the unsolved murders of his two siblings for his entire life. Now that he's sick and the end is near, he wants to tell the story of what really happened the day Danny and Poppy were killed, but he will only reveal everything to his estranged daughter, Olivia.

Things I loved about THE GHOSTWRITER:
--Dual timelines - present versus 1975
--Multiple POVs - main character Olivia, Vincent in the past and present, teenaged Poppy
--Not necessarily fast-paced, but more even-paced to get to the reveal and the twist
--Well-developed characters
--The theme of the treasure hunts
--Reminiscent of Gillian Flynn's DARK PLACES

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a good twisty mystery. I liked the characters and the slow reveal through the (convenient) discoveries that were made. I felt that Olivia was a bit too dramatic with hiding her past from tom. I mean she said it herself, that now anyone can find out background info on someone else if they really wanted to.

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

I don't read a ton of thrillers, but The Ghostwriter offers up the kind of twisty, propulsive psychological suspense that hooked me right from the start. After being "canceled" Olivia is hired by her estranged father to write his final book, a memoir/tell-all about the unsolved murders of his brother and sister decades in 1975.

The whole book is a story within a story. Olivia's relationship with secrets and lies in her own life plays out as a meta version of what's unfolding with her father's stories about the murders. It's honestly so clever. I keep imagining the author saying "See what I did there?"

I loved the use of unreliable narrators. I read this hoping for that same kind of reading experience I had with The Only One Left by Riley Sager, and I was not disappointed. I still found myself saying "WTF?" at the end, which is the mark of a great thriller for me.

Wow wow wow. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this arc! This was such an amazing thriller. Sort of a “who dun it”. If you’re a fan of old family secrets this one is for you to check out!!

What a plot! Olivia is an esteemed ghostwriter, but is now in hot water after she publicly bashes an even more popular yet sleazy ghostwriter in a panel and online. With funds being tight, she doesn't have many options for her next book. So when she is specifically requested to help write Vincent Taylor, she really can't say no, even though he is her estranged father she hasn't spoken to in decades. But it is not a novel that Vincent wants help with; it's a memoir of the brutal murder of his siblings 50 years prior. Many believe that Vincent himself was the cold-blooded killer, and he wants to set things straight.

I liked the dual timelines, with POVs from Vincent and his late sister, Poppy, back in 1975, which gave a sense of what was going on when the murders took place. People in town were saying one thing, Poppy's diary was saying another, and Vincent was saying another, making it a very tangled web Olivia is trying to unravel to get to the bottom of the mystery. This kept me engaged and wanting to keep reading, and once I was at the last 10%, I stayed up to finish. I think it was enjoyable and twisty, and I liked how the story was personal to Olivia, who not only was trying to uncover the truth about this horrible event, but also her family, too.

Julie Clark has done it again! I devoured The Ghostwriter! Five stars, no notes (well, except the ones below 😅).

I loved the dual timelines! Flipping between the 70s and the present day, and the changing POVs added so much depth. Giving voice to Poppy and young Vincent?? Genius. Absolute genius. They brought so much emotion and context, and I was fully invested in their perspectives.

The suspense? Twisty. The secrets? JUICY. And I love how Clark always manages to layer her thrillers with real emotional weight. This wasn’t just a whodunnit, it was a story about legacy, truth, and the secrets we carry.

I’ve been a Julie Clark fan for a while now, but this one might be my new favorite.

If you're into family secrets, dual timelines, and characters you feel like you know by the end, then this one’s for you.

Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark for the gifted eARC and physical book.

This was probably a 3.5 rating for me. The premise was super intriguing, but it started feeling pretty repetitive like halfway through. Unfortunately, I also guessed most of the twists, so the ending didn't feel that shocking to me. I really like Clark's writing style (I loved 'The Lies I Tell'), so I'll continue to check out her books in the future. Just wish this one had been a little more inventive.

Sooo much to unpack here. It's a good story, but it does take a long time to move the story forward. There is a lot to unravel here, especially the fact Olivia and her father have gone so many years without speaking. I feel like there was room to really dig into their relationship dynamics a little more. After all these years, he hires her to write his final book where he will supposedly tell the truth about the night his siblings were killed. There were things I suspected, but not necessarily in the direction it went. I always like when a twist actually surprises me and is actually something that could really happen. (While there are trigger warnings of some things, lets just say you are told it happened instead of having to read the details of it happening) I did enjoy the story and will definitely look for others by this author.

I love a mystery told from the past so the 1970s setting of that part of the plot worked very well. Olivia is a writer charged with telling the story of the murder of her father's siblings. Her father, Vincent, was always thought to be a suspect but the crime remains unsolved. I was really invested in this story and the alternating points of view. I also appreciated explored the father-daughter relationship in this very unique circumstance. I loved Julie Clarks's past work and this newest book lived up to expectations for me. I highly recommend it for mystery/thriller readers. Thanks to Julie Clark, Sourcebooks Landmark, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Julie Clark is fast becoming an auto-buy author for me. This is my 3rd read by this author and probably my favorite yet.

The Ghostwriter focuses on main character, Olivia who works as a ghostwriter. She has been hired by her father to ghostwrite his account of the death/murder of his two siblings many years ago. The investigation of the death of Vincent's siblings has long been a mystery in Ojai California. Many people believe that Vincent was the murderer, but his alibi for the night has held strong. Now it's Olivia's job to tell the real story through her father's book. I loved that there was a treasure hunting aspect mixed throughout the book. While not true crime, I feel that this book would be appreciated in the true crime community. The book was suspenseful and really painted a picture of Ojai, California.