This was my first book by Julie Clark and I definitely want to read more from her. This was a hard to put down thriller and I really enjoyed it.

Olivia Taylor, a ghostwriter, is assigned to write her father’s memoir. He was accused of killing his two siblings Poppy and Danny in 1975. Olivia’s father has lewy body dementia and she doesn’t have that much time to get her father to relive his past and uncover the truth about the night his siblings were murdered.

The story is a little slow in the beginning, but at 50% it’s almost impossible to put down. I loved the flashbacks and I loved Poppy’s storyline. I also enjoyed how we are uncovering clues at the same time Olivia is, it really added a thrilling element to the story. I would highly recommend picking up this thriller novel this June.

Thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Sins of the father? Great, shifting suspense😮

4.5🌟 stars
The plot here is twisty and I really did not know where it was moving to next, making it truly suspenseful and unpredictable. It's a mesmerizing murder mystery, with a professional ghostwriter daughter, who is forced by heavy debts to help her estranged and ill, presumed killer of his two siblings, father to write his biographical account of his childhood and the murders.

The best and meatiest part of the plot is the research the daughter manages unbeknownst to her ailing father who believes she is basing the book on his own confusing notes and what she can winnow from her short interviews with him. What she turns up shocks even dad!

And a major subplot involves the rocky father-daughter relationship that led to their long lack of contact. This was good but not as compelling as the pieced together evidence of the events leading up to the teenagers' unsolved deaths.

The climax was a complete surprise but, once it happened, it was completely logical in retrospect.

I would definitely want to read more of author Julie Clark's work.

Thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honestly opinion.

Review shared on 5/25/25 on Waterstones, Goodreads and Bookbub, and with Barnes & Noble and BAM. To be shared with kobo and Google Play when published.

This was my first time reading Julie Clark and I truly enjoyed her writing style in this book. The Ghostwriter is an interesting thriller read that quickly sucks you in with so many unexpected plot twists. The beginning of the book was a bit slower paced, but it quickly picked up in the middle and end of the book which made the story much more intense. The concept of this book was captivating as the main character, Olivia, takes on a writing job which ends up being for her estranged father and the mysterious story behind the murders of his two siblings years ago. I appreciated that the plot was written in a way that Olivia knows just as much as the reader and uncovers clues about what truly happened years ago in a slow way that is easy to follow, yet kept me on the edge of my seat. Although the ending was completely unexpected for me, I felt that it was a bit anti-climactic and rushed. Overall though, I still really enjoyed this story and will be reading more of Julie Clark's work!

Olivia fled her hometown, changed her last name, and has spent her entire adult life in hiding from a terrible family secret in her past. She thought she'd left all that behind her, keeping the secret from her boyfriend and working as a ghostwriter. Unfortunately, a public confrontation with another writer has destroyed her professional reputation and left her drowning in legal bills. When her agent calls and offers her a job with famous horror writer Vincent Taylor, she accepts out of desperation.

Only Olivia knows the truth-that Victor Taylor is her father, calling her home. When she arrives she learns the job is not just a memoir, but a tell all. Victor Taylor is ready to tell the truth about the terrible summer night that destroyed his family in 1975. Victor's memory is failing and his mind is confused. Can Olivia discover the truth of that fateful night while keeping her reason for being in town a secret before the killer strikes again?

I always enjoy Julie Clark's books. They are always surprising and tightly plotted, and The Ghostwriter was no exception to this. I devoured this book in a weekend. The dual timelines kept my interest without confusing me and the flashbacks kept the story moving forward. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a summer thriller!

Olivia is a ghost writer whose career has gone a bit off track. When she receives a new job offer, she knows she needs to take it, but can she really write a novel for the father she is estranged from, and that nobody in her life knows exists? Will writing this book lead to forgiveness, or will it open s can of worms she isn’t sure she wants to open?


GAHH how much do I love Julie Clark? This book was a bit of a slow burn in the best way! I was instantly a fan of Olivia, and wanted her to succeed and prove a certain gentleman wrong! IYKYK. I loved that we get to live the story from so many different sides, her father with his failing memory, Poppy, and sometimes Vince, alongside the items that Olivia finds during her research. I found myself reading this one slower than normal because I wanted to savor every word along the way! This book certainly kept me on my toes and while I had a lot of theories, I did not see some of the twists coming!

Thank you to @Bookmarked for my gifted copy of this book!

I devoured this haunting, slow-burn thriller! A ghostwriter with a broken past. A father with a dark secret. A decades-old murder that was never solved

Told in past and present POVs, The Ghostwriter is emotional, suspenseful, and full of twists I didn’t see coming. If you love character-driven mysteries and deep family drama, don’t miss this one!

I would like to thank Sourcebooks Landmark & NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review

The Ghostwriter has it all – mystery, suspense, family dynamics, an unreliable narrator, a plot in two time periods, and an interesting California setting. I absolutely flew through this book because I had to know what happened and it did keep me guessing until the very end. This one is more than just a mystery/thriller; it has a level of family conflict (and associated mysteries surrounding such conflict) that added to the plot in a way that elevated the book. Julie Clark’s writing is excellent and she weaves a story that doesn’t coalesce until the end but does so in such a good “ah-ha” way. There is pain and there is healing and the reader gets to go along on a pretty interesting ride. This one should definitely be in beach bags this summer. My only regret with reading my advance copy is that I didn’t get to read it while on vacation.

Tense, atmospheric, slow burned thriller and emotionally layered—The Ghostwriter completely pulled me in.

Olivia Dumont is a ghostwriter with a crumbling career and mounting debt. When she’s offered a job working with reclusive horror author Vincent Taylor, she wants to say no… except Vincent is her estranged father. And he’s ready to finally tell the truth about what happened in 1975, when his teenage siblings were found dead—and the world suspected him.

Told in dual timelines and multiple POVs, including Olivia’s aunt Poppy (whom I loved), this slow-burn mystery is packed with family drama and buried secrets. The writing is clever, the characters compelling, and I was guessing until the final reveal.

Highly recommend for fans of twisty family mysteries and character-driven suspense!

I would like to thank Sourcebooks Landmark & NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review

Olivia has spent her life trying to separate herself from her past: her world-famous author father, Vincent, whose siblings Danny and Poppy were murdered in 1975 when he was a teenager, and the mother who left her. Once a successful ghostwriter, Olivia has been essentially canceled for speaking her mind.

But when Olivia is offered the chance to ghostwrite her father’s memoir—and finally uncover the truth about what really happened in June 1975—it could save her career and prevent financial ruin. The question is: is she prepared for what she’ll find?

I loved this dual-timeline novel, which alternates between the present day, as Olivia works on the memoir with her father (who is suffering from Lewy Body syndrome), and flashbacks to the events of 1975. The book is told from multiple perspectives, including from Poppy and I just loved her! The mystery of who murdered Danny and Poppy kept me hooked—there are several plausible suspects and plenty of red herrings, so I was guessing right up until the end. This thriller has more depth than most, and I especially enjoyed the complexity of Olivia’s relationship with her father.

Thanks for the advanced copy, this book publishes June 3rd. Until then, I highly recommend Clark's previous novels, The Last Flight and The Lies We Tell.

The Ghostwriter is my favorite Julie Clark book yet! This story is so unlike her previous books that I have read (The Last Flight and The Lies I Tell), with a multi-perspective and at times non-linear unraveling of a family secret decades old.

Olivia Dumont is a middle aged ghostwriter who has unfairly hit hard times after calling out the bad behavior of a dominant male in her field. When she is offered a job to write her father's last book, she is in no financial position to turn it down- even if they've been estranged for years.

While the reveals are slow in the beginning, I was hooked from the first chapter. Clark does an excellent job creating a relatable character in Olivia and an inscrutable father who made his money writing horror books after his two siblings were murdered in 1975.

My favorite part of this is the ambiguity, especially towards the end. I know this is no everyone's cup of tea, so I mention it for you to discern if this may be your taste. I also loved Clark's explanation of why she chose this approach in her writing style for this novel. It brings so much to the atmosphere but also reflects the very significant issues brought up in the plot.

I think this book sits solidly in the mystery genre with thriller elements, especially in the final quarter. I highly recommend!

This had everything (and more) that I love in a good mystery/thriller novel. The plot was gripping, the unraveling of the truth was twisted and driven by the characters’ motives, and the resolution was satisfying and not forced.

There’s a lot of sensitive topics that this novel deals with and it does so in a way that feels genuine and for the sake of the story.

I love the parallels between Poppy and Olivia. It was nice to see some light through all of the generational trauma as Olivia fell into similar patterns as her parents did. And it’s always so very exciting to have an unreliable narrator like Vincent - especially when his memory is being used as a source of truth.

I will certainly be reading more of Julie Clark’s work! I couldn’t put it down, especially once I hit the second half.

Thank you to Julie Clark, SOURCEBOOKS Landmarks, and NetGalley for this ARC!

Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont, her finances and career in shambles, reluctantly accepts the lucrative assignment to ghostwrite the last book of famous horror novelist Vincent Taylor, a man everyone believes murdered his teen siblings in 1975, when he was 16. Dumont has spent most of her life hiding the fact that Taylor is her father and hasn’t seen him for 20 years, but she needs the money.

From the moment they are reunited it’s clear there’s more to the project than Olivia anticipated. Her father is in failing health, with severe memory issues that make him un unreliable narrator to his own life. In searching for the truth, Olivia must follow a disjointed series of clues.

The story is told from the points of view of the murdered sister, Vincent, and Olivia, and in the process can feel a bit circular, but it works and in the end we get the true story of what happened back in 1975.

This was an entertaining read and I’ll definitely look into other books by Julie Clark. Thanks to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark and the author for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

First thank you to source books and NetGalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis: Vincent Taylor is a famous author who grew up in with a horrible family tragedy. His daughter Olivia was sent away to boarding school which caused a rift. She is estranged from him for many years after starting her career as a ghost writer. She is called back with an offer to help him write his memoir of the family tragedy.

What I liked: Julia Clark has a way of writing mysteries that fully engrossed you. I truly felt like Olivia and was following along with the mystery and get mad when she did or sad, angry or confused. I really loved the relationship with her dad. I thought it felt realistic with their history. The mystery was a slow burn. At first I wanted to speed things up but like the time it took which was long I’m just impatient. I think she revealed the clues and gave you enough information to keep you guessing and turning those pages. She has turned into an autobuy author for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the opportunity to read an advance copy of The Ghostwriter by Julia Clark in exchange for an honest review.

As someone born in the '70s, I found The Ghostwriter not only compelling but eerily familiar in its atmosphere and emotional undercurrents. There’s a certain grainy quality to the storytelling that reminded me of old home movies and newsprint headlines—those echoes of a time when secrets lived in the walls and families kept them there, quietly and indefinitely.

This novel doesn’t rush. Like the stories we grew up with—ones told around the dinner table or heard through slightly ajar doors—it unfolds deliberately, layered with meaning and anchored in memory. Though it’s marketed as a mystery, Julia Clark delivers something far more introspective: a story that meditates on grief, fractured relationships, and the ways truth can shift over time.

At the center is Olivia Dumont, a ghostwriter who’s made a career of speaking for others while keeping her own past buried. When her estranged father—Vincent Taylor, a horror novelist whose fame was shadowed by family tragedy—asks her to write his final book, Olivia returns to a place filled with echoes of her childhood. What follows is both a search for answers and a reckoning with the silence that shaped her life.

The novel's dual timeline—moving between present-day interviews and the events leading up to the tragic deaths of Vincent’s siblings decades ago—creates a structure that feels like peeling back layers of wallpaper in an old house. You sense something buried underneath, but you’re never quite sure what until the end. I appreciated that the narrative didn’t offer easy answers; instead, it let me sit with the ambiguity and piece things together, the way we often do when reflecting on our own pasts.

The depiction of Lewy body dementia hit especially close to home. I’ve watched a loved one lose themselves to this disease (my grandfather) and Clark’s treatment of it was sensitive, painful, and beautifully authentic. Those moments added an emotional weight to the story that made it feel incredibly real.

While The Ghostwriter might be a departure from Clark’s more plot-driven works, this quieter, character-focused novel is a standout. It speaks to those of us who remember what it felt like to grow up in a time when certain things just weren’t talked about—and how powerful it can be to finally give voice to them.

A strong four-star read. Thoughtful, slow-burning, and full of emotional resonance—I recommend it to readers who value depth over flash and appreciate a story that lingers.

3.75 ⭐️

Clever.
Original.
Intriguing.

The Ghostwriter was uniquely engaging. Like many other readers, I was captivated by The Last Flight. Having loved The Last Flight, I proceeded to read two other novels by Clark, The Ones We Choose and The Lies I Tell. In comparison to her successful 2020 novel, both of these novels were lackluster. That said, I didn’t have high expectations for her newest production, The Ghostwriter, and to my surprise, I was entertained by this slow burn psychological mystery.

The Ghostwriter followed Olivia Dumont, a ghostwriter, who was hired to help her estranged, famous author father, Vincent, write his last novel. What she didn’t know was that the novel was about the past, specifically the murder of Vincent's siblings decades ago, and he was struggling with something that may have prevented him from telling the truth.

I loved the alternating past and present timelines. The flashbacks revealed events from 1975; and the present timeline showed how Olivia pieced together clues from Vincent’s notes, her mother’s diary and interviews. The multiple perspectives allowed for a better understanding of the characters and deeper appreciation for the circumstances they were involved in and the motivation behind their actions.

Aside from the dual timelines and multiple point of views, Clark expertly explored themes of identity, betrayal, and redemption. Olivia tried to figure out who she was since she had been struggling with her career and accepted a job that she didn’t realize would force her to confront her own past, the truth about her father and the events that shaped their lives. Even more, this story explored the complexities of family relationships, generational trauma, and the impact trauma had on their present lives. As the story came to a close, redemption was portrayed through the reconciliation of Olivia and her estranged father, Vincent which led to her healing and finding a sense of peace and self-acceptance.

I greatly appreciated how this mystery gradually built tension as Olivia’s investigation unfolded and clues uncovered a complex web of secrets. The unreliable narrators also added to the intensity of the ambiguous plot leading to a more gripping narrative.

Having read all but one of Ckark’s novels to date, this wouldn’t necessarily be my first recommendation of Julie Clark’s work, but it is definitely a close runner up. If you like slow burn psychological mysteries with dual timelines and multiple point of views, you’ll most likely enjoy The Ghostwriter.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting read - the book didn’t originally catch me from the beginning. It was a bit of a slow start and had me wondering where the author was going with this story. The main character was missing something for me up until the last 50% of the book when she started asking deep questions and going against what she was meant to do. It was nice to get some backstory from Olivia’s father on what happened in his life that made him who he is. I do wish there was more about them mending their relationship, because Olivia did truly have a traumatic childhood. The ending wasn’t super surprising, but this was a fast read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC.

I found this to be the work of a real professional writer who knows how to create suspense and credible characters. I read it nonstop in a day and my attention never lagged for a moment. I hope this book is very successful...and it's another reason why Julie Clark is one of my favorite writers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for a complimentary early release copy of The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark.

The Ghostwriter is an intriguing read that had me hooked from start to finish. There were many aspects of this book that I enjoyed. I liked the characters, the characters felt throughly fleshed out, I liked their personalities, quirks, and even flaws. I enjoyed the past and present character perspectives, I liked how the story incorporates both timelines to make things add up with each other and give further context to what had happened in 1975. The plot did a really good job with keeping things suspenseful without making it feel like things were dragging on.

The Ghostwriter is an equal mix of suspenseful, thrilling, and heart breaking. The relationship dynamics between the family members both past and present is another element that had kept me invested in the story. I do feel just a tad bit confused as to a few things that had happened in the past timeline but otherwise this was a good story. Julie Clark did a fantastic job on The Ghostwriter!

Olivia Dumont has spent her adult life ghostwriting memoirs for women with reputations to protect: politicians, celebrities, business icons who want just enough vulnerability to feel real but not enough to get messy. She makes their stories sound honest while hiding all the sharp edges. Then she moves on. No one knows her real name is Olivia Taylor. Not her agent. Not the publishers. Not even her boyfriend. Because she’s the daughter of Vincent Taylor, a horror novelist so famous his Wikipedia page has a body count. And yeah, he's also the prime suspect in the brutal 1975 murders of his teen siblings, Danny and Poppy.

Now Olivia is out of options. Her career has gone down in flames after a very public and very expensive feud with a fellow author, and if she doesn't come up with a massive chunk of cash soon, she’ll lose everything. So when her agent calls about a ghostwriting gig, she jumps. Then she hears the name: Vincent Taylor. The client is her father. He wants her to write his final book.

He’s dying. Lewy body dementia is closing in, taking his memory with it piece by piece. And for some reason, he’s finally ready to talk about that night in 1975. Olivia doesn't want connection. She wants a check. But what she walks into is her childhood home, her father’s fading mind, and decades of secrets packed into a house that still smells like the past.

This isn’t a twisty thriller. It’s a psychological excavation with flashbacks that bleed and ache. We get dual timelines. Present-day Olivia, clawing through her father’s incoherent notes. And the 1970s, where we hear from both Vincent and his sister Poppy — she through her diary and footage, he through fractured recollections that may or may not be the truth.

Imagine if Stephen King’s estranged daughter showed up at his crumbling old estate to ghostwrite a memoir about that one summer her father maybe murdered his siblings. That is the energy here. Olivia is a fortress. She’s not here for healing. She’s here because life imploded. Watching her try to stay detached as the walls close in is brutal and brilliant. Vincent is cagey, complicated, and just coherent enough to make you wonder if he’s still manipulating everyone. And Poppy. God, Poppy. Her voice is so tender and precise it feels like grief pressed into silent film reels, every frame a scream no one can hear.

The pacing takes its time, especially through the middle, but that slowness is the point. The suspense builds like a storm no one sees coming — one flickering light at a time. Every detail is a breadcrumb in a life haunted by memory, not ghosts. Is Vincent finally telling the truth? Is he rewriting the past before his mind disappears? Or is he just legitimizing the lies he’s been telling himself for fifty years?

The final chapters don’t explode. They devastate. Quietly. Personally. It’s not about solving a murder. It’s about whether Vincent can finally name the pain that’s shaped his entire life... and whether he wants to. And if he does, what does that mean for Olivia, the daughter left to live with it?

Four stars. It’s not perfect. A few characters are flat, and the mystery doesn’t crackle the way some might expect. But it stays with you. It’s sharp. It’s layered. And it hurts in all the right places.

Whodunity Award: For Turning a Ghostwriting Gig Into a One-Woman Cold Case Investigation

Huge thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the ARC. This one absolutely wrecked me in the most narratively satisfying way.

Wow !! This was such twisty eerie thriller. I could not stop reading it. I loved the concept of the author's estranged daughter hired to write his story. I liked the little clues throughout the book. I did not see the ending coming. I think the addition of Poppy's point of view through her home videos was a great addition to the overall storyline. I highly recommend giving this one a read if you enjoy a well written thriller.

Thank you Netgalley and SourceBooks Landmark for the digital arc in exchange for my honest review.