Author: Julie Clark
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Release Day: June 3, 2025
Many thanks to the publisher for a complimentary arc of this title for review. Opinions expressed are my own.
Review first published in Mystery & Suspense Magazine
Review:
THE GHOSTWRITER is a deeply moving, dysfunctional family drama that still lingers in my thoughts days after reading it. In several ways, it's a tragedy - the heartbreaking story of young lives cut short while others are ripped apart by a series of traumatic events that altered their futures forever. Author Julie Clark brilliantly captures the essence of each character, bringing their individual as well as collective stories to life while drawing readers into the fold. The result is a haunting, thought-provoking, mysterious drama that I read from cover to cover in one sitting.
Olivia Taylor aka Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont cut family ties years ago, leaving her last name and devastating family history buried in the small town where she grew up, along with the unwanted notoriety of being the only child of legendary horror author, Vincent Taylor, -- who’s even more famous as the prime suspect in the 1975 brutal, unsolved stabbing deaths of his siblings, Danny and Poppy. No one, including her agent and Tom, a man she hopes to build a life with, knows her real identity. Deep in debt and in danger of losing her home, Olivia has no choice but to accept when a request from Vincent asking her to collaborate with him as a ghostwriter on his final book arrives through her agent. Reluctantly, Olivia heads home only to discover her father is losing his memory and life to Lewy Body Dementia. It's soon clear through his raving hallucinations, faded memories, and short periods of lucidness that Vincent has a different story in mind for his daughter to write - he's ready to tell his story, his memoir, his version of the events that occurred that fateful night in 1975. In doing so, will Vincent reveal himself as a murderer . . . or identify someone else as the villain? Is her father manipulating her into one final treasure hunt through his cryptic notes like the games they played when she was a small child? Olivia knows it’s too late to turn back now, but in proceeding with her investigation, she’s forced to face a few hard truths of her own and decide if she, too, is ready to move out of the shadows, acknowledge her roots, and move forward with her life.
Like the expert she is, Author Julie Clark delivers a mesmerizing, gut wrenching mystery that resonates with regret, guilt, betrayal, and what "might have been". Seamlessly alternating past/present chapters evolve through multiple points of view from highly unreliable narrators. In the past, readers get a firsthand accounting of the chilling events as they occur through Vincent and Poppy's voice, old, grainy, silent film footage and Poppy’s diary. The present is told through Olivia's interviews with her father, his haphazard, puzzling notes and chaotic manuscript as well as her investigation and interviews with other people. An insane pace accentuates a dire tone of malice that increases page by page with every new twisted revelation until the shocking truth is revealed. Multilayered characterizations are expertly crafted, each packing a punch as the story unfolds through tautly interwoven plot and timelines. The strained father/daughter relationship dynamics are brilliantly explored with so many lost moments and missed opportunities lending an air of regret while increasing the tension. Clark's research on Lewy Body Dementia is obvious, and I appreciate her managing the topic with grace and compassion. My thoughts on who the murderer was shifted back and forth throughout this story and while I guessed part of the truth by the climax, the author still surprised me in the end.
THE GHOSTWRITER is a deeply immersive, hauntingly beautiful, not soon to be forgotten family drama. Author Julie Clark has firmly established herself as a must-read author in the mystery and suspense genre. The depth of emotion she evokes in characters and readers is nothing short of amazing. I can't wait to read what she writes next. Highly recommended to fans of twisted mysteries, family dramas, and suspense.
Olivia Taylor aka Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont cut family ties years ago, leaving her last name and devastating family history buried in the small town where she grew up, along with the unwanted notoriety of being the only child of legendary horror author, Vincent Taylor, -- who’s even more famous as the prime suspect in the 1975 brutal, unsolved stabbing deaths of his siblings, Danny and Poppy. No one, including her agent and Tom, a man she hopes to build a life with, knows her real identity. Deep in debt and in danger of losing her home, Olivia has no choice but to accept when a request from Vincent asking her to collaborate with him as a ghostwriter on his final book arrives through her agent. Reluctantly, Olivia heads home only to discover her father is losing his memory and life to Lewy Body Dementia. It's soon clear through his raving hallucinations, faded memories, and short periods of lucidness that Vincent has a different story in mind for his daughter to write - he's ready to tell his story, his memoir, his version of the events that occurred that fateful night in 1975. In doing so, will Vincent reveal himself as a murderer . . . or identify someone else as the villain? Is her father manipulating her into one final treasure hunt through his cryptic notes like the games they played when she was a small child? Olivia knows it’s too late to turn back now, but in proceeding with her investigation, she’s forced to face a few hard truths of her own and decide if she, too, is ready to move out of the shadows, acknowledge her roots, and move forward with her life.
Like the expert she is, Author Julie Clark delivers a mesmerizing, gut wrenching mystery that resonates with regret, guilt, betrayal, and what "might have been". Seamlessly alternating past/present chapters evolve through multiple points of view from highly unreliable narrators. In the past, readers get a firsthand accounting of the chilling events as they occur through Vincent and Poppy's voice, old, grainy, silent film footage and Poppy’s diary. The present is told through Olivia's interviews with her father, his haphazard, puzzling notes and chaotic manuscript as well as her investigation and interviews with other people. An insane pace accentuates a dire tone of malice that increases page by page with every new twisted revelation until the shocking truth is revealed. Multilayered characterizations are expertly crafted, each packing a punch as the story unfolds through tautly interwoven plot and timelines. The strained father/daughter relationship dynamics are brilliantly explored with so many lost moments and missed opportunities lending an air of regret while increasing the tension. Clark's research on Lewy Body Dementia is obvious, and I appreciate her managing the topic with grace and compassion. My thoughts on who the murderer was shifted back and forth throughout this story and while I guessed part of the truth by the climax, the author still surprised me in the end.
THE GHOSTWRITER is a deeply immersive, hauntingly beautiful, not soon to be forgotten family drama. Author Julie Clark has firmly established herself as a must-read author in the mystery and suspense genre. The depth of emotion she evokes in characters and readers is nothing short of amazing. I can't wait to read what she writes next. Highly recommended to fans of twisted mysteries, family dramas, and suspense.
Synopsis:
Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of legendary horror author Vincent Taylor, famous not only for his novels but for being the prime suspect in the brutal slaying of his siblings. On the brink of financial ruin, Olivia reluctantly agrees to ghostwrite her father's last book, not realizing she will be forced to reckon with the ghosts that live at the centre of her family.
