This was my first book by this author. Olivia has a strained relationship with her dad, who wants her to be his ghostwriter for a family novel that’s packed with secrets. I wasn’t hooked until about 35% of the way through. I didn’t fully connect with the female main character, Olivia. She seemed very distant.It took a while to get going, but once it hit the 1970s, I was more into the mystery. I didn’t feel like I was in a thriller, more like a historical mystery/true crime. I thought I had the suspect figured out at one point, but then I switched to another later in the book. Everyone in this book had a complicated, dysfunctional relationship.The big reveal wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be. Overall, it was a good read. I’d definitely read another book by this author.

Thanks a bunch, NetGalley, the publisher, and of course the author, for sending me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book is very different in tone than the author’s previous works. I would not classify this as a thriller, but rather a slow build mystery with a lot of focus on character development and family relations. It’s not boring per se, but it’s also not propulsive.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. This was a fast-paced read with a compelling plot! The story weaves seamlessly between past and present, revealing the secrets of Olivia’s father’s past and how they continue to shape their lives today. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, another twist took me by surprise. I was hooked from the very beginning and stayed engaged the entire time. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more from this author!

This slow-burn thriller had me completely hooked by the end. Olivia Dumont, a ghostwriter with secrets of her own, is pulled back into the dark legacy of her father—famed horror author Vincent Taylor—who may or may not have murdered his siblings decades ago. As she agrees to help him write his final book, the lines between truth and fiction start to blur.

The twists are dark, the atmosphere eerie, and the emotional depth truly gripping. I thought I had it all figured out—until I didn’t. Julie Clark masterfully weaves a haunting mystery with a tragic family drama that kept me second-guessing every chapter. It's smart, layered, and lingers long after the final page.

Special thanks to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much to Sourcebooks Landmark and Julie Clark for my copy of this book. It was about Olivia, a ghostwriter who needs a job badly. That's why when her father, legendary horror author Vincent Taylor, offers her a job writing his memoir, she decides to do it even though they are estranged. She hopes to uncover what really happened to her aunt and uncle who were brutally murdered in the 70’s, leaving her father as the main suspect. What she finds instead is a twisted family tale much darker than she imagined.

Thoughts: This book was so good! I loved the story and the idea of a daughter becoming a ghostwriter for her father, especially because he was a famous horror author. I really enjoyed the way the chapters jumped back to the past so the reader could get an idea of what happened back then. I thought the idea of the treasure hunts were also fun, though a bit odd.

This book was about family relationships, specifically a dysfunctional and strained relationship between Olivia and her dad. The story was a tense, slow-burn that kept me reading and was full of wonderful characters. The book delved into absent parents, sibling rivalry, and how well we know the people in our lives. Though there wasn’t much of a surprise ending, I loved the journey that the book took me on and the way it ended. 4-stars

This one kept me thinking the entire book. I was able to predict towards the end but I really enjoyed the journey. This was well written and an easy read. I would read more by Julie Clark.

The Ghostwirter is an engrossing novel that kept me guessing until the end. Julie Clark is a wonderful writer and I enjoyed this book as much as I did The Last Flight.

4.5/5 stars. I have sentimental feelings for Julie Clark’s writing as her book The Last Flight was my first Book of the Month which helped me get into reading. The Ghostwriter was a sad and tragic thriller, not in a tearjerker was but tough subject matter wise. Julie’s writing is exceptional, and it pulled me in from the start. In another person’s review I read previously, they said it was “masterfully crafted” and I totally agree with that. The ending really made me think. Felt like I was reading a true crime documentary on tv in the best way! I did a review post of this book on my Bookstagram that I have linked down below.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

I really enjoyed the other two Julie Clark novels I have read, but this one didn't work for me. Olivia is a ghostwriter who has recently lost a court case, and this has led to her work drying up and to massive debts. She therefore agrees to ghostwrite a novel for her estranged father Vincent. Her agent is unaware of their relationship, since Olivia has created an alternative past for herself in which both her parents are dead and has changed her last name, but Vincent has requested her specifically. When she arrives at his house she discovers he has a form of dementia and in fact wants her to ghostwrite a memoir about the deaths of his siblings, Poppy and Danny, when they were all teenagers, deaths for which he was a prime suspect.

My main problem was that I found this really slow and repetitive. Then there was the fact that the characters were all a bit odd and had very dysfunctional relationships with each other. All the parenting was appalling or absent or done while drunk. Olivia claimed Tom was her soulmate, but had never told him the truth about her past, even though she says at one point that it isn't hidden if anyone were to really research her life. The story of what really happened to Poppy and Danny was sad, but I was mainly glad to have got to the truth so that things could stop being endlessly rehashed.

I didn't care for this one and I think it's because I loved her book, THE LAST FLIGHT, so much that her later books just don't grab me like that one! This was a slow buildup and even though the twists were sevearl it still wasn't that good - the cover was boring so maybe that will change before print. Not much of a fan of this one.

4.5 🌟s for the latest novel by Julie Clark. In dual timelines, we follow Olivia in the present day, contacted by her estranged father's publisher to ghostwrite the story of the 1975 murders of her aunt and uncle; and in 1975, we follow her father, mother, aunt, uncle and others as they spin further and further out of control in the months leading up to the murders. Olivia's father, a writer himself, is no longer able to write due to Lewy Body dementia, but as Olivia digs further into the crimes that many believe her father committed, the challenge becomes figuring out if her father's memory is unreliable because of his disease or because he is lying to her. Suspenseful but not 'scary', Clark's novel explores how secrets and shame can alter families, in reality and metaphorically.

I received an ARC of this novel through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

An amazing book. Julie Clark has done a masterful job of weaving together a multi-layered mystery and family drama,told through two timelines and multiple perspectives. The characters are real: very raw and vulnerable. The reader is on this journey with the main character, and ghostwriter, Olivia. We are discovering clues and shocking revelations along with her as she writes a memoir of a famous author and his family’s many complex, and sometimes tragic, secrets. Through this journey, Olivia also discovers, examines and understands parts of her own life. The mystery unfolds a little at a time, which keeps the tension high. This is a very character driven book, that is beautiful written!

Thank you #netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book.

This was just as intriguing and twisty a mystery as I've come to expect from Julie Clark. It slowed for me a bit in the middle, and I predicted one of the big reveals, but it was an enjoyable ride overall and I'm so grateful for the ARC!

Another great story by this author. I read it in one sitting and throughly enjoyed it

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review

The Ghostwriter follows a daughter returning home to ghostwrite a memoir for her estranged father, who some people believe murdered his siblings fifty years ago. The combination of conflicting "evidence"and fast pace had me racing to the end. I found myself actually caring who was the murderer not just to solve the mystery, but also because I thought the characters were well done and full of depth.

I received an ARC from Sourcebooks Landmark via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Well plotted and executed, The Ghostwriter is a story about a writer who is forced to look at the murder of her aunt and uncle back in 1975 in a new light. Was her father involved back then despite his iron clad alibi? If so… how deep? Will Olivia be able to forgive whatever the outcome before disease takes her father’s life? And make peace with how she was raised? This book had me turning pages well into the night.
Thank you in advance to the author and NetGalley for a sneak peek!

I'm so sad that I wasnt vibing with this one as much as I hoped! In terms of a mystery, The GhostWriter hit it out of the park. It's just that for me personally it moved way too slow, and at a certain point I wasnt as excited to get back to it. I felt like it could have been cut shorter.
Regaurdless of the outcome, I love Julie's books and will always read them! She is an auto buy! Thank you for the opportunity to read early.

Olivia Dupont is a ghostwriter. Very few people know anything about her family because her mother left her when Olivia was five and because her father, a successful horror writer, is also notorious for being the most likely suspect in the brutal slaying of his siblings in the 1970s. The case could never be made, but people in town decided without the help of a jury.

He also abandoned her, in a different way. Sending her away to boarding school and being drunk and distracted by his career when she was home. She left home and never wanted to look back. But she’s on the brink of financial ruin, and her father wants her to write his memoir. Grudgingly, she accepts the job, and learns her father has Lewy body syndrome, which affects both the body and memory. Olivia is going to have difficult time figuring out what is true.

It takes time figuring out what happened back in 1975. Olivia finds clues to help her piece together the puzzle at long last, but it’s a painstaking process.

NetGalley provided an advance copy of this novel, which RELEASES JUNE 3, 2025.

Five stars! One of the best books I’ve read in 2025 so far….

One of my favorite genres is murder mysteries/ psychological thrillers but in the past 2-3 years, so many of them have become cookie-cutter and formulaic. Ghostwriter revived my hope that there are still books in this genre that I can thoroughly enjoy!

Once I started reading Ghostwriter, I couldn’t put it down. I finished it in less than 24 hours.

I’ve read one of Julie Clark’s previous books, The Last Flight, and enjoyed it, but Ghostwriter blew that book out of the water! Ghostwriter is well-written, unfolding little by little, it keeps you guessing, and has main characters who are both flawed and people you want to cheer on.

About the book:

Olivia Dumont, a talented ghostwriter, is tapped to help her father, whom she has been estranged from, write his memoir. Olivia’s father, Vincent Taylor, is a famous horror author who many believed killed his sister and brother when he was a teenager. Complicating Olivia’s attempt to write her father’s memoir is Vincent’s refusal to let Olivia interview friends and family members about his life and the murders and Vincent being recently diagnosed with a progressive brain disorder (LBD) that causes cognitive decline.

We gradually learn more about Olivia’s father, Olivia’s mother, and Vincent’s siblings: Poppy and Danny, who died as teenagers. Throughout the book, Clark alternates between Olivia’s perspective, Vincent’s, and Poppy’s. Clark skillfully paints complicated relational dynamics with emotional depth. At times, I paused to think about how she worded things, reading passages over and over. A few of the memorable ones have been included here…

“Forever that young girl, quivering with nerves at the
prospect of a difficult conversation with her father”.

“I shake off the complicated swell of regret and fear
that I might lose a man I’ve spent years convincing
myself I didn’t need”.

As a therapist, I often explore what my clients have experienced in their lives but also learn the meaning they have taken from their experiences. Our formative histories and emotions color the stories we tell ourselves, especially in the most significant relationships in our lives. Often our past pain colors our current experiences…even memories we think are engraved in stone can eventually be called into question.

In the Conversation with the Author section, I loved Clark’s reflection:

“People’s recollections are tinted with their own
biases. Their beliefs, layered over the top,
sometimes rendering a completely different
meaning. Red becomes purple. Yellow becomes
green”.

I loved how Clark showed this truth as Olivia journeyed back through her family history and her history with her father.

I also appreciated how this author detailed the impact of the tragedy on all involved and how she wondered with her readers about what could have been had even one person—one of Vincent’s parents, Vincent himself, or Olivia’s mother—made a different choice.

To sum up, I’ve now borrowed Julie Clark’s previous books from the local library and will be watching for her next release. She is becoming one of my auto-buy authors.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for granting me access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

Haunting and immersive, The Ghostwriter by Julia Clark unspools like an old film reel-grainy with grief, heavy with secrets, and quietly devastating. This slow-burn mystery drips with betrayal, buried truths, and the ache of memory. Through unreliable narrators, lost diary, and haunting footage, the past unravels until the final, heartbreaking reveal. It's not the twisty thriller one might expect from Clark-but something deeper, quieter, more introspective. And it lingers.

Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has built a life in the shadows-crafting voices for others while carefully burying her own truth: she is the only daughter of Vincent Taylor, the infamous horror novelist whose legacy is stained by blood and suspicion. Once hailed as a literary legend, Vincent is now remembered as the prime suspect in the brutal murder of his own siblings.

Teetering on the edge of financial ruin, Olivia reluctantly agrees to pen her father's final book. But returning to his crumbling estate means confronting not only the man she's spent years avoiding, but the ghosts that have haunted her family for decades. As fiction blurs with memory and buried truths rise from the dark, Olivia must face the story she was never meant to tell-one written in arief. auilt. and silence.

The depiction of Lewy body dementia struck a chord with me. Having lost my mother to dementia just last year, those moments felt tender, honest, and achingly real. It was fresh and painful, but also beautifully done. This story may be a departure for the author, but it's a powerful one-emotional, raw, and profoundly human. A luminous four stars and I highly recommend it!!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️