This was such an interesting concept for a book - and I hadn't given much thought to ghostwriters before.
Definitely good tension in the storytelling and I love alternating POVs. I did have a hard time with Olivia and her mom - the book could have wrapped up in 50 pages if Olivia just asked her mother what happened, or what she knew.

This one definitely kept me fully invested. I spent my Mother’s Day reading it because I had to figure out what happened next! I really enjoyed the alternating timelines and points of view. They were easy to follow and added so much to the story. I especially loved the riddles. They made me feel like I was a part of the story and helping to unwrap the mystery.

The Ghostwriter is an emotionally charged family drama mystery with satisfying reveals and a complex journey to a surprising finale. I enjoyed the use of ghostwriting as a way to unfurl a family's tragic past, while exploring the way the memories and narratives we tell ourselves affect our most important relationships. I loved how Clark played Olivia and her father's relationship out, and the glimpses into her father's sibling's pasts. I absolutely adored sweet, ambitious Poppy and was heartbroken discovering how she met her end, but loved her sharp wit all the way to the end.

Fans of family secrets, complicated small town dynamics and books about writers will devour this one!

This was a unique and intriguing story idea. It was well-organized, but felt slow to me for a thriller and also slightly predictable. I think because it was slow, it gave the reader time to play out possible scenarios and by the time we got the big reveal, it was underwhelming. I did mostly enjoy the book overall and liked the ending.

Hook~Line~Sinker
This story hooked me from the beginning, "I know what your dad did."
I may have neglected my adult responsibilities in order to binge this read. It is full of flawed complex characters trudging through life not realizing the wake their actions leave behind them. There was not a moment when I wanted to put this book down. The pacing kept me turning pages until I reached the very end.

Olivia Dumont has spent her entire career as a ghostwriter and was very successful until recently when a few comments set her once prestigious career on fire. Now struggling to make ends meet she is given an opportunity she can't turn down. Legendary horror author Vincent Taylor wants her to write his memoir. He is known for more than his writing skills though as a teen his two siblings were slain in his childhood home and many believe he was responsible. Olivia has spent the better part of her life distancing herself from the Taylor name and no-one knows the truth that Vincent Taylor is also her estranged father. Desperation is the only thing that could reconcile this father and daughter but the path forward isn't going to be an easy one.

This story was a masterful treasure hunt with little clues and mystery to unfold as you go. All the answers are there if you know where to look. Olivia must follow the breadcrumbs or in this case the ramblings of unreliable narrator with a diminishing mental state and the often incoherent notes among his many notebooks. I loved how developed each character was and how immersive the story felt. Just when you think you have it all figured out I bet there is still a surprise just around the next bend. This is going to straight to my favorites list.

Thank you so much to NetGalley & Sourcebooks Landmark for the opportunity to read an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

A book that left me on the edge of my seat. What really did happen years ago? Did the ghostwriter really know that had happened in her family? Was her father given a fair chance? Lots of pieces of the puzzle to figure out as I read the book. Julie Clark is an author I very much enjoy following.

Julie Clark does it again! I loved The Ghostwriter, a taut, emotionally charged thriller that's as smart as it is suspenseful. Steeped in dysfunctional family drama and with an emotional resonance that lingers long after the final page, this is a twisty, grippy read you won't soon forget.

Olivia has just signed on to ghost wrote her father’s memory. Long estranged from her famous author father, Olivia learns secrets about her family’s history that cause her to question their validity since her father’s recent dementia diagnosis. Using alternate points of views and multiple time periods, we learn that what Olivia has been told by her father, may actually point to his responsibility in a heinous crime many years ago.

This mystery/thriller/suspense novel about a struggling ghostwriter hired by her writer father to help write his last book is full of twists and turns.

Olivia used to have a thriving career as a ghostwriter until she mouthed off publicly about a fellow ghostwriter and her career tanked. She hasn’t talked to her father since she graduated high school but suddenly she has no choice but to return to her hometown to see him because he’s dying, needs her help in finishing his last book, and is willing to pay her. The catch? The book he intends to write is the true story of how his two siblings died many years ago, a murder he has always been a suspect in. Olivia has to grapple with the reality of her father’s secrets and her relationship with him, all while on a book deadline.

I liked the multiple POVs in this story, jumping back and forth between Olivia’s modern day perspective and the perspective of her father and her aunt during their childhood. The plot was like nothing I’ve read before and I never saw any of the plot twists coming. If you like your mysteries extra twisty, this one is for you. It may have even been a little too twisty for me at times, because I found the ending pretty confusing. But that may have been intentional on the part of the writer, partly as a reflection on the unreliability of the storytelling of some of the characters.

Anyway, I’d definitely recommend this for fans of more literary and slow burn family mysteries!

I struggled with this one. The bouncing around was hard to follow, didn’t love the narrator (if you can call her that?), and ultimately didn’t love the writing. I can see the appeal but it just didn’t work for me!

What a cleverly executed premise that peels away the layers of a 50 year old mystery!

Olivia DuMont, 44, is a professional ghostwriter, but with a stalled career after an unsuccessful legal tiff with a misogynistic author. Vincent Taylor is a old powerhouse horror author whose reputation has always been sullied by the unsolved murders of his teenage brother and sister. Vincent was cleared at the time of the murders, but the rumors have persisted and he’s never revealed more. Now he’s secretly suffering from Lewy Body dementia, losing control of his mind and body, and he hires Olivia to help him finish a memoir of the tragedy. Why Olivia? Because she’s his estranged daughter, a fact neither her partner nor her agent know. Olivia has been out of touch with her alcoholic father since he packed her off to Swiss boarding school at sixteen after her mother left earlier.

Told via three POVs: Olivia (hamstrung with NDAs), Vincent as a teenager (via his messy manuscript that Olivia is trying to decipher), and sister Poppy (via her diary and references to the super 8mm movies she was taking at the time). The flashbacks bring us to 1975 Ojai, California.

Olivia is a terrific character — conflicted by her father, wondering about her mother (who Vincent does not want contacted), and trying to rescue her career and relationship, under a strain because of the secrecy of her contract. She’s not sure if her father is lying, deluded, or whitewashing his story. The author balances the three POVs perfectly, revealing more and more as suspense builds until the end. You’ll be hooked midway and amazed that the ending keeps twisting another way even when you think you know the truth. I loved this — 5 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO Only Vincent’s watery eyes get mentioned.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO But an ominous oak grove in 1975 plays a part.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

[Snack-Size Review] The Ghostwriter, by Julie Clark

Quick Bite: I think there was probably a pretty good story buried somewhere in this thing.

(*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*)

What It’s About: After a devastating professional setback, Olivia Dumont reluctantly agrees to meet with her estranged bestselling novelist father, and ghostwrite his memoir. Diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia, his physical and cognitive abilities are rapidly declining, which means they have to work fast. Oh, and he might have murdered two of his siblings as a teenager, but he doesn’t want to talk about that.

A Word From The Nerd: This is the kind of book I would normally adore - I love an unreliable narrator and shifting timelines, and “found footage” types of books. But the author was just too enamored of her own “this person says it happened this way but they might be lying” trick and throws it out like five dozen times, to where it’s damn near impossible by the end to figure out who actually did what. Highly annoying.

The Nerd’s Rating: TWO HAPPY NEURONS (and some birthday cake.)

My thanks to Net Galley and Sourcebooks Landmark for allowing me to review this arc.

Its 1975 and siblings Poppy and Danny Taylor are found stabbed to death in their home. There is one surviving sibling, Vincent, who becomes a famous horror writer.

Fast forward to present day and Vincent is dying of Lewis Body Syndrome and wants a ghostwriter to help write his memoir. Who does he hire? His estranged daughter Olivia who is trying to escape her family s past. But....finds herself uncovering deep dark family secrets.

I really liked this book in how the dual time lines mixed the mystery with family drama.

Olivia Dumont is a ghostwriter. Her agent tells her that Vincent Taylor, a famous horror author, wants Olivia to ghostwrite his last book with him. Vincent Taylor also happens to be Olivia’s father, a fact she has spent her life distancing herself from and a fact no one knows to be true. Olivia has always told people her parents are dead. She moved to Europe for high school and stayed for college, acquiring a different last name after a brief marriage. Olivia wants nothing to do with the man she felt abandoned her as a child and a man also thought to have killed his two siblings in high school. However, Olivia is in dire straits financially and this job offer is the only one she has after a scandal with a notorious client has ruined her reputation and finances. It turns out her father wants to write a memoir that deals with the deaths of his two siblings, Danny and Poppy. So Olivia not only has to deal with a father who is losing his mind to Lewy Body dementia, but also deal with the truth of the family tragedy and painful memories going back 50 years. I thought the book was very well done. The characters are well written and the suspense keeps you hooked to find out what really happened. I found it very interesting and loved how the digging through the past forces Olivia to face truths about herself and her relationships. I give the book 4.5 stars out of 5, which I’ll round up to 5.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on June 3, 2025.

Received an ARC via NetGalley.

This is one of those stories that’s pretty sad but also.. comes together with hope in the end. Like generational trauma coming to an end.

There was a lot of back and forth between past and present, with unreliable characters that counteract what’s being shown in the past. But it’s one of those things where multiple things can be true.

I really went back and forth between what I thought was happening. I started to piece it together at the end but only partially. There’s a lot of threads to follow that all connect together.

Great story of father and daughter reuniting for a murder book project. The story was very haunting and captivating. It was very atmospheric. I was totally immersed. I would highly recommend this one to all my mystery lovers. Honestly, this would make a great movie.
Thank you to sourcebook for the advanced copy.. all opinions are my own

Another great read from Julie Clark! At this point, I’m all in for whatever she writes next. This was an intriguing story, with a lot of atmospheric details. It’s one of those books that feeds you small bits of information at a time, and while it definitely kept me reading, I was on the verge of being frustrated, and wanting to just get on with the story. With so much time to ponder while reading, I was able to pretty much figure out where the story was going. But, none of that really took away from my ultimate enjoyment of the book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark for the digital ARC!

Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her life hiding the fact that she’s the daughter of legendary horror author Vincent Taylor, famous for his novels and for being the prime suspect in the brutal slayings of his siblings back in the 70’s. On the brink of financial ruin, Olivia reluctantly agrees to ghostwrite her father’s last book, not realizing he intends to pen a tell-all about what happened to his siblings. But is he really telling the truth?

•Dark
•Flashbacks & present day timelines
•Emotional
•Book within a book

This is slow burn that hooked me very quickly. The MC attempts to uncover the mysterious history of her family as she interviews her father, whose memory is rapidly dwindling. Olivia relies on old diary entries, video recordings, and some amateur sleuthing to fill the blank spots in her father’s unreliable manuscript.

The flashbacks make for a very atmospheric and eerie experience, always knowing it’s leading up to tragedy. I had many suspicions throughout the story and loved feeling stumped and frustrated right along with the MC. The characters are fully-developed and the narrative gets quite dark, though I did feel the pace lulled just a bit in the middle as I grew tired of the father’s evasiveness. As the mystery builds, the slow burn turns to pure thriller toward the end and I was glued to the page. I really enjoyed how this played out.

I loved The Ghostwriter so much. The mix of family drama, buried secrets, and that nostalgic, treasure-hunt vibe totally hooked me. It felt like flipping through old memories in an old forgotten photo album. A little emotional, layered, and a bit bittersweet in the best way. Julie Clark knows how to tug on your heart while keeping you turning the pages. Highly recommend if you like stories that feel personal and a little mysterious. We won’t talk about how I teared up a few times from seeing Olivia’s relationship with her dad. Iykyk.

Thank you so much for the publisher and Netgalley for an early e-copy of this book in exchange for my thoughts. This publishes June 3 2025 ❤️‍🔥

A really good read with a twist at the end. It definitely kept me guessing. As someone who has a parent with dementia; I enjoy seeing it talked about in books lately.