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Thanks to NetGalley for an early copy of THE GHOSTWRITER by @julieclarkauthor - I loved the way the story unfolded and was told through multiple point of views including through Poppy’s lens literally.

The story starts with Olivia, a ghostwriter who has spent the majority of her life trying to conceal her true identity - she is the daughter of famed author Vincent Taylor. His siblings were killed in a brutal accident almost 50 years ago and his involvement has always gone unanswered. Her father has now commissioned her to write the story but to do it justice she must first uncover the truth first! This book is full of secrets and partial truths that keeps you guessing. Loved all the nods to the early 70s music and the wonderful Pee-chee folders!

Enjoyed this book as well as THE LAST FLIGHT and THE LIES I TELL so while you are waiting for this book to be released in a few weeks - go grab a copy of those - you won’t regret it!

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“Siblings find who you are at that age.”

“You can’t erase the past by not thinking about it.”

“I’m beginning to realize that once you lie about your pass, you wall yourself off from the present. From the people who care about you.”

Lastly:

“Information is power, yes. But it’s also a burden because once you know something, you can’t pretend you don’t. “

This book had a slow start but was so worth it! The author did a great job of telling the story and not giving the ending away. I could not read fast enough!

I'm trying to think of something, anything I can that could have been done better with this story and I simply cannot. This novel, is flawless to me.

Some of my favorite things:
Thriller? Definitely
Slow burn? Deliciously yes.
Unreliable narrator? Yes, but way more complicated than that.
Strong l, yet flawed female lead and supporting characters? Yes
Blood pressure spikes? Too numerous to count.
Heartbreaking and heartstring yanking ending? So, so, so beautifully done.

I'd never read anything by Julie Clark before, but I will be reading everything I can find of hers now. This is one of the best storyline I've read and I love the way it unfolds like origami. I would d give this 10 stars if I could.

Thanks x 1000 to the author and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the gifted early copy.

This was exactly what I was hoping it to be. Great mystery, nontoxic but complicated father/daughter relationship, 1975 California timeline. I slightly guessed the ending but the journey was absolutely worth it. I will say this book worked for me more for the atmosphere then the twists, which is honestly a good thing.
Essentially it a story within a story, readers follow along with the main character and get to solve the puzzle as well.
My only criticism is the Tom story line. Everything about that part of the book did not feel like it was even necessary and overall only made me mad.
At the end of the day, I highly recommend adding this book to your beach bag because this is a prime summer reading material.

Olivia Dumont was a successful ghostwriter until her very public and costly call out of a morally dubious ghostwriter has her desperate for work. When she is contacted by a famous writer to ghostwrite his book, she is desperate enough to take the job. But there's a catch: the famous writer is her estranged father who was accused of murdering his siblings when he was 16 years old. The accusations have haunted Olivia her whole life. But now, nearing the end of his life and certainly his career, her father is ready to "come clean" with Olivia's help.

But what does the truth look like when decades have passed?

This book is told in dual timelines: Olivia's in present day as she parses through her father's notes and uses her history as a journalist to investigate a cold case, and the perspectives of her father and her aunt (one of the murder victims) when they were teenagers in 1975, the year of the murders. This approach provides so much humanity to the victims, and reveals discrepancies between the first person account of events and stories told so many decades later. Who can be trusted? Who are the real victims? Who's stories do we believe?

I loved this book. It's an examination of the unreliability of memory, the way truth can warp and evolve over time, and the impact secrets have on a community. There is no scenario that you can imagine as the reader that Olivia doesn't contemplate in parallel. No stones are left unturned. You will be seeking answers up until the very last page.

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2025 and I was so so excited to be approved for an ARC (thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark!). If I didn't have two small children I can't ignore / need to keep alive, I would have read this book in one sitting. (Spoiler alert: I read it in two). I look forward to reading more from this author.

This book will be published June 3, 2025.

Olivia grew up unsure if her dad was involved in the murders of his brother and sister. After a lengthy estrangement she agrees to ghostwrite a book for him, but becomes even less sure what’s true, what’s a game, and what’s a delusion. 🔪

2.5 ⭐️ I’m sorry to say I found this book slow, boring, anti-climactic, and repetitive. For me, the story wasn’t engaging and it irritated me to no end that every single clue or piece of evidence our FMC found literally fell into her lap by happenstance. 🙄 The pace was so slow that in combination with underdeveloped characters, I was bored beginning to end. As of right now, I’m an outlier though, so take this with a grain of salt.

My thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for a complimentary advance copy of this eBook, out 6/3/2025.

Totally addicting! Julie Clark did an awesome job on Ghostwriter. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a book that made me really want to sit down and just fly through it but this book did just that. I absolutely loved how detailed and vivid the writing was, I pictured so many parts. There are two different stories going on here, past and present, and they mixed so well. I really couldn’t figure out how it would end and when it did, I was not disappointed in the slightest! You have a daughter who is hired to be a ghostwriter for her estranged horror-author father, who very well have been involved in the murder of his two siblings when he was younger. She has gone her whole life, wondering if the rumors were true about him killing them. We see her side while interviewing her father who has the beginning stages of Lewy Body Dementia and then we see her father‘s past through various other means. Can she believe her father who is suffering from Lewy Body Dementia, or will her investigation into the past prove that he is guilty?
Thank you to Julie Clark, NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC edition to read for review.

A well written, page turning mystery with fully developed, engaging characters, a well paced story, and enough twists to keep me guessing until the very end. Each time I thought I had it figured out, more was revealed that kept me guessing. This is the second book I've read by Julie Clark and it certainly won't be the last.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an advanced reader copy.

The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark was wonderfully written. This was my first time reading a Julie Clark book and I really enjoyed the narrative!

The turbulent relationships and overall family dynamic that stemmed from both parents’ childhood experiences, was captured very well.

I would characterize this book as a “slow-burn”, but it was definitely a page-turner!

There were a lot of different POV’s and different timelines. A couple of times I had to reread a page to make sure I was reverting back to the correct timeline, but that didn’t bother me. I loved the twist at the end and the way the author kept me guessing throughout the book. I would definitely recommend giving The Ghostwriter a read!

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark, Julie Clark and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in return for my honest opinion.

I genuinely enjoyed this one! I've been in such a reading slump lately, but I felt this book start to dig me out of that hole. I liked the mystery behind it and trying to figure out who the true suspect was during the entire ride. I enjoyed the unreliable narrator vibe from her dad and how Olivia stumbled upon different clues throughout the story to help her discover the real story behind her family's tragic history.

Twists, turns, although it's a bit of a slow burn, so some patience is required. Loved the father/daughter themes and esp. loved Poppy's chapters! Recommend to fellow readers.

I really liked the lies I tell from this author. Unfortunately I didn’t love this. The premise was interesting but it wasn’t executed well enough for me. It got really convoluted and a little repetitive. I didn’t feel fully satisfied with the ending. I did like the POV and year jumps. It kept things interesting.

Julie Clark is easily becoming my new favorite psych thriller author. Her books are so good and suspenseful and this one is no exception! Great read!

Olivia’s tumultuous childhood was full of rumors that her father had murdered his brother and sister. As an adult, she cut ties with him and went on to become a prolific ghostwriter. Years later, reeling from a professional setback, she receives an offer to ghostwrite a novel with him - but when she arrives on the job, she finds that it’s actually a true story that he wants to tell.

Things got a bit slow in the middle, but the flashback chapters were well-timed, adding color as Olivia picks up new clues. Even if you guess what really happened the night that Poppy and Danny were killed, you’ll find something to be shocked by. The answers start to be revealed towards the end of the story, yet things still aren’t quite what they seem. I wasn’t certain of anything up until the very end.

I need you to pick up this book, it’s so good! I kept going back and forth on the beginning to try and pick up the pieces and figure out who is the killer and I just knew it was who I thought. It was so well written including the perspectives of her dad’s family. I’m glad it didn’t include much of her boyfriend because honestly we didn’t much of him just enough to show she’s very secretive about her family. I will probably make this one of my book club reads.

A chilling, layered thriller about family secrets, legacy, and the stories we’re told—and the ones we bury. The Ghost Writer kept me turning pages late into the night.

This is more than just a thriller—it’s a haunting exploration of truth, trauma, and the cost of staying silent. Vincent Taylor is the kind of unreliable, unforgettable character that stays with you, and Olivia’s slow unraveling of the past had me hooked.

The dual timelines blend seamlessly, building a tension that never lets up. And the ending? Perfection. If you love twisty books about writers, family secrets, and long-buried truth, this one’s for you.

Olivia Dumont is a ghostwriter. She reluctantly takes a job with Vincent Taylor, a wildly successful horror writer, who is also suspected of killing his siblings, though nothing was ever proven. Olivia also happens to be his daughter. Vincent wants her to write his memoir. But what is the truth and what is a lie?
I read this book in basically one sitting. I could not wait to find out what would happen next. I did figure out one major plot point but it in no way interfered with my enjoyment of this book. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Having thoroughly enjoyed *The Lies | Tell*, my favorite Julie Clark mystery, I was excited to request her newest release.
Thanks to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for this ARC!
The fraught dynamic between father and daughter heightened the novel's tension. The narrative shifts between Olivia's present-day interviews with her father, flashbacks from both her father and Poppy, and Olivia's own insider investigating. Olivia's father is suffering from Lewy Body Dementia, and with that the reader is constantly questioning: are his recollections genuine memories, distortions caused by his illness, or deliberate attempts to shape his own story?
This made the story even more compelling.
Reading Poppy's chapters was the highlight for me, making her tragic ending all the more painful. I felt conflicted-part of me needed to know how and why she died, while another part wished I could avoid it.
The overall blend of suspense and raw family emotion is truly exceptional. Julie Clark hits it out of the park again.

4.5 stars, rounded up

It’s another winner from Julie Clark! I’ve loved her two previous books, and this one was so good, too. Thanks so much to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the advance copy!

Olivia was a tremendously successful ghostwriter until her (valid) outspokenness puts her career and her finances in jeopardy. She gets offered a job she desperately wishes she could refuse, but she can’t: ghostwrite the latest book for famed horror writer Vincent Taylor.

No one knows that Vincent is Olivia’s father. She left home in high school and hasn’t seen her father in years. But when she returns to her childhood home in Ojai, California, she learns he doesn’t want her to write a novel for him. He wants her help with a memoir about a family tragedy that occurred 50 years ago.

In 1975, Vincent’s older brother and younger sister were murdered in their home. As the only surviving child, many believed he was the killer—suspicion that he’s never quite been able to shake. But now he’s ready to talk about what happened.

Vincent’s memories don’t quite jibe with written recollections and other memorabilia Olivia finds from 1975. Is he purposely trying to evade the truth, or is he telling what he believes happened back then? There’s a lot of pressure for Olivia to complete the book quickly, but she’s determined to find the real truth.

This is a slow-paced yet tremendously twisty mystery, shifting between 1975 and the present, and narrated by Olivia, Vincent, and his sister, Poppy. It’s one of those books where you don’t know what or whom to believe, but I couldn’t put this down. So good!

The book will publish 6/3/2025.

This rainy Sunday brought to you by a binge read of Julie Clark’s newest. Olivia Dumont’s marriage might not have lasted but she’s thankful for the cover a new last name provides. Her maiden name connects her to a history of family tragedy and its aftermath she’d rather not claim. But when her career as a ghostwriter is threatened by one of the most powerful men in the business, another well known author might be the only way she can crawl out of the hole she’s created. Unfortunately, that also means she’ll have to confront the past she intentionally left behind. Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this unputdownable mystery that reads like a true crime investigation.