The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark

Thank You NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for a complimentary copy of this novel! All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. This novel was sooooo good!!! I literally finished in in 24 hours! It is a psychological thriller that alternates between the 1970’s and present day. Olivia Dumont is a ghostwriter who has gotten herself into a bit of a find financially. So when she is chosen to ghostwrite a more unique memoir, she has no choice but to accept. The catch is...he is Olivia’s father Vincent, a well-known author; but also once thought to have killed his brother and sister years ago when they were teens. Olivia is now racing against the publisher’s clock to find out the truth what happened that horrific night. The killer was never brought to justice. But finding the truth is proving to be more difficult since Olivia’s father is sick and suffering from a form of dementia and Alzheimer’s. As the clock winds down to the deadline, Olivia uncovers clues as to what might have happened. The truth will shock you! I did not see that coming. I really enjoyed reading this novel because it kept me on the edge of my seat and I did not want to put it down! AVAILABLE June 3, 2025!

Olivia Dumont, a talented writer in her forties, has built her career as a non-fiction ghostwriter. A recent incident has tarnished her reputation and has put her in financial hardship. She receives a lucrative offer to ghostwrite a book for Vincent Taylor, a bestselling writer of horror novels. Unknown to the publisher and her agent, Olivia is Vincent's estranged daughter, and the book is his memoir. Fifty years ago, Vincent's older brother, Danny, and younger sister, Poppy, were murdered in their Ojai, California, family home. The double murder has never been solved, but Vincent has long been the primary suspect in the court of public opinion. Not only does Olivia need the money, but she desperately wants to know, after all these years, what happened in 1975. Her ailing father is an unreliable storyteller, so Olivia has to uncover the secrets that devastated many lives.

After loving The Lies I Tell and The Last Flight, Julie Clark became a must-read author. The Ghostwriter is another highly satisfying book from Clark, who expertly weaves in great twists. The story is told in both the present and in 1975, revealing the complex family dynamics of the Taylor siblings, leading up to the day of the family tragedy. It's a well-crafted mystery thriller and a heartbreaking story with intriguing, multi-layered characters. I was captivated.

4.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC – this was one of the best thrillers I’ve read this year. The Ghostwriter is an addicting mystery that had me hooked from the first page, with twists and turns that kept me guessing until the very end. But what sets this book apart is its emotional depth and literary complexity. It’s not just a quick, cheap-thrills read; it’s a layered, gripping story that lingers long after you’ve turned the final page.

📝 Why It Stands Out:
📖 Complex Characters – This isn’t your average thriller. The characters are messy, flawed, and fully realized, making the stakes feel real and the twists genuinely surprising. Olivia Dumont’s journey as the estranged daughter of a disgraced horror author adds a layer of emotional tension that elevated the entire story.
🔀 Expertly Woven Flashbacks – The alternating timelines and multiple viewpoints were perfectly executed, adding depth to the mystery without ever feeling confusing. I found myself hanging on every reveal, trying to piece together the puzzle.
🎭 Emotionally Charged Ending – Without giving anything away, the ending was both satisfying and heart-wrenching, tying together decades of family secrets in a way that felt earned and deeply impactful.

💥 Final Take: This is my first book by Julie Clark, but it definitely won’t be my last. If you’re a fan of thrillers that dig a little deeper and pack an emotional punch, this one is a must-read.

💬 Have you read The Ghostwriter? What other twisty thrillers should I add to my list?

Very very very dragging. For fans of slow burn thrillers, yea, you might it enjoy it. But wow I was bored :(

WOW WOW WOW! As much as I loved her previous books (𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘍𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘐 𝘛𝘦𝘭𝘭), this is my new favorite Julie Clark book.

It has everything I want and love in a good mystery:
-complicated characters, full of heroic qualities and bad decision making
-thoughtful plot construction, details that matter, red herrings that made sense but still intrigued me, and while I thought I had it all figured out, I did not
-complicated family relationships
-gorgeous writing without being too verbose

My prediction…this is gonna be a BIG summer hit

I was a big fan of Clark's "The Lies I Tell", so was very excited to dive into "The Ghostwriter". It did not disappoint! I love the concept of our main narrator, Olivia, unravelling the events of her aunt and uncle's deaths by way of helping her father (the person long thought to have killed them) write his memoir as his health and mental capacity begins to fail him. It's an intriguing premise and an effective storytelling device. Nothing is ever quite what it seems, as details are pieced together via unreliable narrators and unique perspectives, including diaries and found video tapes. Even revelations that may seem predictable come with a twist, and it really kept me guessing up until the very end.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy!

Double homicide, one sole survivor.
And a mystery that was never solved even 50 yrs later.

Despite the rumours that placed the murder on the sole survivor…. A brother who had an alibi is also the famous thriller author who wants to write a memoir of what he knows to be true from the night his brother and sister were killed.

Cue the estranged daughter who is asked to ghostwrite said book. And then drop the clues with each chapter.

A cat and mouse mystery with a side of pain, secrets and murder. A bit of a genre mashup when dealing with the estrangement and the hurt of it all. The story keeps unfolding, and the reader keeps flip flopping with what unreliable narrator is … reliable.

The only thing I didn’t get is the piece with the mother.


Spoiler alert:

I wanted to know why Olivia never even tried to reach her mom. It doesn’t make sense that she just listened to her dad and didn’t contact her. Esp as an adult. And even more so when her dad and her stopped talking

This was a really solid mystery for me! The different timelines kept it engaging and fast-paced, and there were enough plot twists that it kept me guessing, and I love how everything came together in the end. I also think this book did an excellent job of exploring family dynamics and intergenerational trauma.

The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark is a very highly recommended, clever mystery and family drama that unfolds in two timelines while exploring a tragic event from the past.

Olivia Dumont is a ghostwriter who has been estranged from her father, the famous horror writer Vincent Taylor, for years so she is shocked when she is offered a job writing a book for him. It isn't a horror novel. It's a memoir focused on events from June, 1975, when his two teenage siblings, Danny and Poppy, were murdered in their Ojai, California, home. Throughout Olivia's childhood in Ojai rumors were always swirling around that Vincent was responsible for the murders.

Olivia accepts the job because she needs the money. Once she arrives in Ojai, she learns that Vincent is in poor health and has been diagnosed with Lewey body dementia. He has notes for the book, but can no longer write it. Olivia must try to decipher his notes and piece together clues from other sources to try and determine what really happened to Danny and Poppy fifty years ago.

The writing and plotting is excellent in this slow-burn mystery/thriller/family drama. While the start feels slow moving, the suspense and tension keep building up along with the pace as more information is uncovered and Olivia tries to piece clues together. It is unclear if Vincent is telling Olivia the truth or if he even honestly recalls what happened. The NDA Olivia signed also prohibits many of the obvious research routes she would normally take.

The narrative follows two time lines. In the present Olivia is searching for information in Vincent's notes, Poppy's diary and later her films, and some interviews. From the past are flashbacks and observations from Poppy and Vincent in 1975. The balance between following Olivia in the present and the scenes in the past work exceptionally well together in the narrative while proving more insight, clues, and twists. They are all compelling characters as you follow their stories. The final denouement pushed the rating up on this one.

The Ghostwriter is an excellent choice for those who enjoy a murder mystery mixed with a family drama. Thanks to Sourcebooks for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Edelweiss, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

After enjoying Julie Clark's first two books, I was excited to receive an early copy of The Ghostwriter. And let's take a moment for this incredible cover!

📖: Olivia Dumont is a ghostwriter who has fallen from grace after an online controversy. As she worries about her unpaid bills, she gets a job offer. Her estranged father, Vincent Taylor, wants her to ghostwrite his last book. His health is deteriorating, and he wants his story to be told. A memoir this time. This may turn out to be the opportunity Olivia needs since there may be high demand for Vincent's story... people have always wondered if he was to blame for the deaths of his siblings in the 1970s.

🤝: This may be a good fit if you enjoy:
- complicated family dynamics
- multiple POVs & timelines
- strong female characters (especially Poppy)

💭: I'm happy to report Julie Clark provided another enjoyable reading experience! There were a lot of directions this one could have gone. Some I guessed and some I didn't. To me, it felt like the point was more in the nuance of it all. I like the examination of memory and secrets throughout generations.

I appreciated there was a "conversation with the author" section already in the arc to get some perspective from Clark. (Shoutout to my Bookstagram friends for telling me about it!)

Rating: I really liked it! (4)

This one was a slow burn for me. I was hooked from the beginning and wanted to find out what happened, but it lost me a little bit in the middle. I think the idea of a ghostwriter has been done a lot lately but I liked the murder aspect. I was really happy with the ending.

I'm usually a huge Julie Clark fan, but this one... felt a little bit all over the place. Nice premise I suppose but something just felt off to me? The ending was a little confusing and finished off quite smoothly(ish) but still something felt very different than the rest of her novels.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for the opportunity to read this ARC! The story itself was so good. It was just too slow for me to thoroughly enjoy. I found myself distracted so often while reading this and it really didn't keep me wanting to read it for the first 2/3 of it. The last chunk of this book went by pretty fast for me though & kept me wanting to see what would happen next!

I always enjoy Julie Clark’s books, so I was extra excited to receive an advanced copy of The Ghostwriter (publishing June 3rd). I loved reading a couple of her previous books, The Lies I tell and The Last Flight, both filled with palpable tension, alternating between a dual POV. If you want a story that’s psychologically tense but light enough to feel like a popcorn thriller, then pick up one of her books. I promise you won’t regret it.

This book met all my expectations and then some. It was smart, hooked me from page one, and held my interest until the end. I particularly enjoyed the tense relationship between the ghostwriter protagonist, Olivia, and her ailing horror writer father, Vincent. Including the dark past she’s been hired to write in his memoir. Learning about his childhood and his murdered siblings was a dark layer to the story I really enjoyed, giving it a lot more depth. Julie Clark did an amazing job at plotting, and creating an unreliable narrator in Vincent, while uncovering the truth through multiple POVs and past timelines. I thought the old Super 8 clips were an especially nice touch. The characters felt authentic, their arcs made sense, and kept me guessing. The ending felt very satisfying, and I loved the angle of Olivia (only daughter of suspected killer) returning to write her father’s memoir as marketing gold. The fact she didn’t realize being his daughter would create an advantage, and really push the book to be a bestseller was a little surprising, but perhaps the shame she felt toward her family overshadowed it. I was reminded of Sharp Objects when Camille returns to write about the murders in her home town.

A scene that sticks with me is when Olivia goes back to her father’s childhood home, where the murders took place, and finds the suspicious message carved into the wall above the doorframe in his handwriting. That was a great red herring!

For readers who enjoy suspense, stories about dysfunctional families, and a book within a book.

I’m bummed. I really loved The Last Flight, my first Julie Clark novel. The set up. The story. The mystery. They are all (mostly) missing here in The Ghostwriter, her latest that follows our main character, Olivia, who in financial ruin, must return home to ghostwrite the memoir of her ailing father with a seemingly dark past.

See, she escaped her hometown (and father) for a life without the darkness and family history that had followed her around her entire childhood. Her father, a successful writer, has history of his own - he was accused of killing his younger sister and older brother in high school. A child, years later, confronts Olivia in school with this “fact,” leading to bullying and isolation. Fast forward to present day and Olivia is unsure of taking this job, but without many options, decides to return home. From there, she is debates what’s fact and fiction - did her father kill his siblings and is now using this memoir to cover up his tracks or is he giving light to the truth.

It’s a great set up but the destination isn’t worth all of this build up and pages — the novel is over 350 pages and could have benefited with some red lining. It’s over stuffed like the boxes littering Olivia’s home. But that isn’t the biggest issue here. I’m a fan of “books within books” novels, but Clark has decided to add the ironclad NDA as one of the book’s antagonists. It is mentioned almost as much as some of these characters, leading to the story to come to a halt several times. This NDA limits who Olivia can contact including people who are willing to tell the truth in lieu of her father, who is slowly losing his grip of reality and already talks in riddles. It’s a plot device that unfortunately doesn’t respect the reader’s time.

Luckily, the characters we do meet including our MC are well written. I also appreciated the chapters centered on POVs from our departed characters, especially Poppy, Olivia’s aunt who was murdered. She was so sweet and smart and made me want to keep reading to understand what happened to her. Though, having just finished the book, I’m unsure if I’m clued in with the truth. My thanks to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for this ARC.

I was really intrigued by the premise of The Ghostwriter—a daughter uncovering long-buried family secrets while ghostwriting her famous father’s final book? Yes, please. The setup had all the makings of a twisty, emotional thriller, and there were definitely moments where the tension pulled me in.

That said, this one was a slower burn than I expected, and I found myself wishing for more urgency in the pacing. The dual timelines between past and present added depth, but the emotional payoff felt a bit muted for a story built around such a haunting family mystery. I also wanted more from Olivia’s internal journey, especially as she came face to face with the man she’s been running from her entire life.

Still, Julie Clark’s writing is strong, and there were some well-executed twists that kept me reading. If you’re a fan of atmospheric, character-driven thrillers and don’t mind a slower build, this might work better for you.

I read this as part of an in-person bookclub and really enjoyed it! I have read one of Julie Clark's previous releases and really enjoyed it, so I somewhat went into this one with higher expectations. I liked the interwoven timelines and POV shifts and could practically smell the old film from Poppy's camera. Looking forward to discussing this one with my bookclub, and thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for my early copies!

Thank you to Net Galley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and the author Julie Clark for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book seemed like it had a pretty straightforward plot. More than once, I thought I knew where it was going, but I was wrong. This was a twisty, suspenseful, page turner. It starts out as a slow burn and then hold on.

Olivia Dumont is a ghost writer. She has spent the better part of her life hiding the fact that she is really, Olivia Taylor, whose father is a horror writer. He is also still the prime suspect in the deaths of his older brother, Danny, and little sister, Poppy. Olivia has long since cut off contact with her father when he commissions her to be his ghost writer. He wants her to tell the story of what really happened all of those years ago. Desperate for money, Olivia heads home. Her father who is suffering from an early form of dementia, goes back and forth from reality to confusion, leaving Olivia to try and piece together the truth.

Told in flashbacks from his little sister’s point of view, and present day, this will keep you guessing. Another great novel from Julie Clark.

SO SO GOOD! One of my top thrillers of the year so far! Oh the twists and turns Julie took me on, watch out Cedar Point she's coming for your gig!!

A super twisty and compelling read. I loved bouncing between the timelines and the POVs, and the story had me flipping the pages to find out what really happened. I thought the relationship between the MC and her partner could have been a tiny bit more fleshed out, and so their main conflict would pack a bigger punch, but overall a great read!