I am a fan of Jule Clark's previous novels THE LAST FLIGHT and THE LIES I TELL and this book did not disappoint. I like the author's style of weaving in backstory into the front plot action. It was an interesting premise, and I was hooked immediately. This book also had an atmospheric setting that matched the tone of the mystery/thriller. I look forward to more books by this author.

* The Ghostwriter* by Julie Clark was a solid read, but it didn’t fully grab me the way I hoped. The premise was intriguing, and the suspense kept me turning pages, but I struggled to connect with the characters emotionally. Some twists were predictable, and while the writing was strong, it lacked that extra spark to make it truly unforgettable. It was good, just not great—worth a read, but not a standout for me.

Quick fun read for fans of Julie Clark. I was interested in the insights of the life of a ghostwriter and the inherent challenges of that profession. I did not guess a few of the twists in the book . The story has dual timelines but in this case the past POV tied directly to the events in present which made it engaging.

The Ghostwriter had me on the edge of my seat towards the end and truly invested in the characters and the plot the entire time I read. As soon as I thought I had figured out what had happened, I was hit with another twist. It is a truly captivating thriller by Julie Clark and I can not wait to pick up more of her books in the future!

I men the last year, I read a ghostwriter book I liked, one I loathed, and I decided to be give this one a try.

The story is told from multiple points of view. Some people enjoy that, some don’t. It’s not one of my favorite styles. It also is a darker mystery than I typically read. I need a good dose of comedy or romance to lighten the weight unless I’m in the mood for the deep seriousness of a darker story.

I’ve never read this author so I have no idea if this is a typical book for her. It wasn’t quite my type of book, but I know people who would love it.

The Ghostwriter was a great thriller! When Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont is offered the chance of a lifetime to be the ghostwriter for famous thriller author Vincent Taylor, Olivia majorly debates what would seem a no brainer. The reason why is the Vincent Taylor was the suspect in the murder of his brother and sister 50 years earlier...and Olivia's father. Being the ghostwriter would allow Olivia to finally put the mystery of her aunt and uncle's murder to bed, and either indict her father or clear his name.

This book was such a fast paced read and the twists were insane!

The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark is, oddly enough, the second book about a ghostwriter I've read lately. This one's definitely better than the last, though that's not saying much. It follows Olivia, a ghostwriter who's carefully kept her connection to Vincent Taylor under wraps - after all, who wants to advertise that their father is a renowned horror novelist who might have killed his siblings fifty years ago? But when she finds herself broke and desperate for work, she ends up ghostwriting the memoir where he's finally promising to tell the truth about that night. The bones of a good story are there, but I kept getting hung up on things that didn't quite work - like how Olivia's mother is just... completely absent from her life with barely any explanation (except at the end, and that explanation doesn't really work for me) or how we're supposed to believe in these deep relationships between characters who've been lying to each other from day one.

The book tells the story of a ghostwriter, named Oliva Dumont who is in enormous debt, and is tasked with writing a memoir of the famous author, Vincent Taylor who is the only surviving child of the Taylor Family; the Taylor's family's other two kids were brutally murdered in 1975, and many in the town believe that Vincent Taylor was the one to have murdered his siblings.

Olivia Dumont has been keeping a secret for her entire professional career. Born Olivia Taylor, she has changed her identify to distance herself away from her past and the fact that she is the only daughter of Vincent Taylor. Although she Is hesitant to take this assignment. her growing debt leaves her no choice, especially since this job opportunity is a windfall and she would be able to pay off all her debt.

I rate books on many criteria such as writing style, characters, narration, cover, title, atmosphere, ending and whether or not the story moved or wowed me. I loved reading this story and found it very engaging. The characters were well written and like the way the story flowed between past and present. I loved seeing and hearing the different POVs from the characters. I also love the title and cover. with the burning pages and text. I found it to be directly correlated to the material inside the book. I really dislike a misleading title or cover, and I was very happy to find that the content inside matched its cover.

This story had me questioning many things and had me feeling different emotions. My favorite character of the book was Vincent Taylor. From the time the story first introduces him, I took a liking to him, and I believed him. I found him to be a reliable narrator, and I was rooting for him. Now Olivia on the other hand, I despised. I found her to be a bit cold and selfish and not a very reliable narrator. The things she did to get her story were unscrupulous!!! I want mentioned them all here, but one was hacking into her father's computer and data without his knowledge or consent. I found this to be incorrigible behavior being that she did it whenever she felt. The disrespect!!! Also, I felt that Olivia did not care for her father or his well-being. She only cared about making money! Despite Alma's warnings, she continued to do as she pleased, which annoyed me so. Thank goodness for Alma and Jack as well. He was my second favorite character, and I loved how he put Olivia in check, and gave her an accurate perspective of the facts. I found Olivia also to a walking contradiction and Hypocrite. On one hand she wants to nothing to do with her father, but on the other she was his money and fame. She says she wants to distance herself from that life, and yet she uses her father to gain riches, wealth, success and fame. She was a very unstable and unreliable journalist because instead of trying to investigate the story, I felt she was investigating her father. As I said Vincent Taylor was my favorite character. I absolutely ADORED him! Thus, I did not like the way Olivia treated him, especially when she acted against his will. That being said. I love the fact that this story had me so emotionally invested. I could actually picture the scenes of the story as they were happening and of course I had a clear visual of Vincent. I really cared about this character, his well-being and emotions. Tom, I liked as well. He is a sweet caring guy who values honesty and trust. I think he was well written, and I think many readers may know or have come across a Tom in their lives. The supportive guy who will only put up will BS for so long. Really loved his character and hope to see more like him in future reads.

This book left me thinking and questioning things. I would have loved to hear from the mother's POV. There seemed to be a lot of love between her and Vincent, and I ponder why at some point, these two did not reconcile. I also would have liked to know more about the relationship between Mr. Stewart and Lydia (the mom) POV, although I do find the mom to be an unreliable narrator, and I am not sure I believe her account of things. I think hearing the young Lydia's POV would have help to us better understand her motives and actions. In the end, I do like that some things were not totally fleshed out which allows me free space to think of the "why" and question what is accurate or what is not.

I really enjoyed reading the conversation with the author and hearing her process in writing this book as well how she got the idea and her thought process in creating such great characters. I really appreciated such an honest conversation. I never really thought about what an author goes through trying to keep account of all the characters and what they know and when they knew it. As a reader, I found it very relatable that she too had to go back and explore chapters. Many times, I have had to go back in a book to make sure I am getting the accurate picture, see if I missed something or to recheck things after I have learned something new. I even went back in this book to reread the chapter with Olivia and her mom to make sure I didn't miss anything. I love this book! I loved reading it from the cover to the end! It checked every box I had, and it moved me. I look forward to reading my fourth novel by this author; The Lies I Tell. After reading the included excerpt, I was definitely interested in reading the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for Publishing for giving me this ARC for my honest review.

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review-
Will the world finally read what really happened that night?
Vincent, is dying and asks his daughter Olivia to ghostwrite his story of the murders and what really happened that night,
The Taylor family- Poppy and Daniel murdered, then the accusations begin that the only child left Vincent killed then - nothing is proven. Will the truth finally be revealed?

I absolutely devoured this book!! 👏🏼 This is such a dark, delicious read. It’s told from multiple point of views (which is my fav 😍) and bounces back & forth from 1975 to present day. I could go on and on about how incredible this book is. Truly an absolute masterpiece! 🤯

Huge thanks to @netgalley for the ARC! Be sure to grab this amazing thriller when it’s released on June 3rd, 2025

I expected more from this book. I read it was really good but it ended up being not my thing. . thank you netgalley

Ghostwriter, Olivia Dumont, is fresh off a fall from grace at the hands of an arrogant author who ruined her career. Given a second chance to redeem her ghostwriting career. Olivia is hired by her estranged father to write his memoir. A famous author himself, Olivia's father is suffering from Lewy Body Dementia and wants an unsolved mystery from his past solved before he dies.

Julie Clark's newest mystery is plot driven with well-developed characters. It is a page turner which I truly enjoyed.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this suspenseful read.

I was so excited to get an early review copy of one of my favorite thriller authors. Julie Clark delivers again! This is every thing I look for in a thriller. It's unputdownable. There is an excellent plot with the requisite twists and turns but there is also a family drama and a complex relationship between a father and a daughter. I enjoyed the dual timelines and Olivia felt like a real person to me. I enjoyed the little lessons on writing someone else's story. As an author, a partner and a daughter she wasn't perfect and I winced sometimes when she dealt with her dad. The slow reveal worked for me and I found this book quite atmospheric. The ending left something unexplained which I also appreciated. Thanks Net Galley and Source Books. And thank you, Julie Clark. Keep writing!

While I've enjoyed Julie Clark's previous books The Ghostwriter is my least favorite. The beginning was too slow and the ending was too rushed that it didn't make sense. Overall I would recommend reading this book if you like thrillers with a little bit of suspense. Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy for a honest review.

Down on her luck, ghostwriter Olivia Dumont is offered a job writing a memoir for the famous horror writer Vincent Taylor. Olivia. needs the money desperately but will have to deal with her deep dark secret that Vincent is her father. Olivia spends the entire book unraveling secrets of her fathers past and also letting go of her own secrets and past.

What I liked: Clark does a fantastic job developing the characters. I loved the past/present dual timeline and found myself more interested in the past story line rather than needing to know what was happening in the present. I loved Poppy's character. She was spunky and wise beyond her years. I would have loved for Poppy to have more "novel time"-even though her story was told brilliantly. She just resonated with me.

What I disliked:
Underdeveloped Relationships: While Olivia’s relationship with her father was well explored, some secondary relationships—particularly with other present-day characters—felt underdeveloped and could have added more depth to the story. I would have liked more back story with Olivia and Tom and perhaps more with her mother.
Pacing: Perhaps this is because I read this book over several days, but I felt like it was a bit slow at points and I had to just keep reading for the excitement to pick back up.
Even with my own personal dislikes this was a great book and I give it a solid 3.5 stars. The story was well told, the twists were good, and the story was wrapped up nicely. Solid read!

Special thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this Advanced Reader Copy in Exchange for an honest review.

Before I lost most of my tolerance for the ubiquitous lady thrillers, I read the author's Last Flight and thought it was pretty good. So I figured I'd see what she's up to now with her latest.
The main draw here for me, actually, was that I very much enjoy books about writers. This one has two, a father and a daughter, once estranged and now reunited for their first and last project together.
The father has made a career of writing scary stories and is now losing his mind to dementia.
The daughter has made a career of ghostwriting other people's stories before losing it all to a very public feud with a nasty and litigious man in her field. (Attention - message! Because, of course, you can't have a book without a message these days.)

The father has spent fifty years living under a dark shadow of a double murder (both his siblings) of which he has been suspected but never convicted. Now he decides to set the record straight once and for all through a memoir. And who better to write it than the daughter who has spent most of her adult life telling people he's dead.

That's the basic premise of the story, and it is a pretty compelling read ... until you realize that literally all of the mystery and suspense here is based solely of the distribution of information. As in, the reader is strategically fed only a tidbit of info at a time. Which a. gets frustrating, and b. after a while just seems stupid. I mean, the character doesn't go talk to a crucial part of the puzzle person until the last fifth so of the novel.
It's like, come on. I know you're getting paid per word here, and you've got to hit your 368 pages, or the reader apparently won't recognize what they are reading, but still ...

In the end, this is still very much a genre cliche, meant to check all the right boxes. And as such, it cannot be too challenging, lest it alienates the mainstream audience, thus alienating the more demanding one.
User mileage may vary. Thanks Netgalley.

There’s a little something of everyone inside Julie Clark’s newest book!
Thank you, Sourcebooks Landmark, for the gifted copy of The Ghostwriter {partner}

Genre: Mystery
Format: 🎧📖
Pub Date: 6.3.2025
Pages: 368
Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆.5

“Every chapter has to have a point. Even if the reader can’t yet see it. Every story told must serve two purposes — to allow your reader to know your characters better, and to push the narrative toward the conclusion.”

Okay, Julie Clark, you’ve officially got me! The Ghostwriter was an absolute rollercoaster of a story – I wasn’t sure what to expect at first, especially with the timeline jumping around, but once I found my bearings, I was completely hooked. This book kept me up late into the night because I just couldn’t put it down!

Not only was The Ghostwriter a gripping mystery (with some serious thriller vibes), but it also offered such a deep, emotional look at the stories we tell ourselves about our pasts. It’s a mystery, sure, but it’s also a heartbreakingly beautiful story that unraveled in ways I never saw coming. The way everything came together left me in total awe of Clark’s story telling abilities.

Trigger warnings: Lewy Body Dementia, animal abuse resulting in death (2)

Read if you enjoy:
😳 Dysfunctional family dynamics
🗣️ Multiple POV
🧐 Thought provoking
✌🏼 Dual Timeline

I recommend reading The Ghostwriter this summer when you have an afternoon to yourself - once you start reading, you won’’t be able to put it down!

Two teenage siblings are murdered in their home the same night in 1975. Their surviving brother, Vincent, had an alibi but was never able to shake the suspicion that he was the killer. Now, 50 years later and a successful novelist he is ready to write his memoir including details of that night. He brings in his estranged daughter Olivia to ghostwrite the book before he dies.

This was such a great book, I really enjoyed it! Julie Clark definitely knows how to tell a good story. I loved the different points of view throughout the past and present timelines. I was not able to predict the ending and I loved how it all played out.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Sourcebooks for the advance reader copy. Publication date June 3, 2025

I was quickly intrigued by this book but the first 100 pages feel a bit slow and repetitive. Did not love this as much as the other books written by this author.

I loved all of Julie Clark's other books and this one is no different! The plot centers around family dynamics and of course there are lots of secrets!