Review – The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark
Synopsis
A dazzling thriller in which a struggling ghostwriter is hired to finish her legendary father’s last book – a story that will finally force him to tell the truth about the murders that have haunted their family for years.
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 older brother and younger sister in in 1975.
Olivia is on the brink of financial ruin when she’s called back to Ojai to ghostwrite her father’s last book. With no other jobs on the horizon, Olivia accepts, assuming it’s her father’s next horror novel. What she doesn’t know, though, is that she will be forced to reckon with her father and the ghosts that live at the center of her family.
Because after fifty years of silence, Vincent Taylor is finally ready to talk about that night in 1975.
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Praise
“Julie Clark does it again. In The Ghostwriter, Clark takes on family secrets with her trademark suspenseful storytelling and exquisite twists. The Ghostwriter is Clark at her best.” ―Laura Dave, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me and The Night We Lost Him
“I love all of Julie Clark’s books and The Ghostwriter is at the top of that list! Expertly plotted and exquisitely twisted… Julie Clark masterfully weaves together a daughter’s long-held suspicions and her father’s deadly secrets with the tragic events from the past. The Ghostwriter kept me turning pages in this suspenseful search for the truth.” ―Ashley Elston, #1 New York Times bestselling author of First Lie Wins
“Once again, Julie Clark is the queen of the twist. Intricately layered and full of emotional complexity, The Ghostwriter throws you in the deep end and keeps you there until the very last page. It left me breathless.” ―Janelle Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things, Watch Me Disappear, and All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
“In The Ghostwriter, Julie Clark peels back the painful layers of generational trauma in exquisite, chilling detail, to solve a long-unsolved double homicide. The Ghostwriter is a totally original, haunting literary thriller.” ―Mary Kay Andrews, New York Times bestselling author of Summers at the Saint and The Homewreckers
“Julie Clark is a master storyteller at the top of her game. The Ghostwriter is a richly layered family drama unspooling out of a dark history, as much a tale of a woman searching for connection with her enigmatic father as it is a brilliant mystery about a night of violence whose consequences echo into the present. Clark’s books are always irresistibly plotted and expertly written, but The Ghostwriter, with its powerful emotional reckoning at the center, its father and daughter reaching for each other across time, takes it to a whole new level. This is a book to be devoured and then, in retrospect, savored. I loved everything about it.” ―Ashley Winstead, national bestselling author of Midnight is the Darkest Hour
Review
Take an unsolved murder, family trauma, and a dysfunctional family, and you have this book.
I was drawn in from the beginning, following Olivia as she navigated her life after a situation that financially landed her in hot water and reconnecting with her father. The latter was not by choice, but out of need. Despite the past, Olivia is drawn into the truth about what happened to her aunt and uncle fifty years ago. Only a few people know the truth; it takes persistence to uncover what happened that day. When the whole story is revealed, it is quite a surprise!
The story is primarily told in the present, but there are chapters from 1975 from Poppy and Vincent’s point of view. These chapters help fill in the gaps of what happened that fateful day. We don’t get all of the pieces until the end, but these snippets fill in the pieces until the whole picture is revealed.
This book has quite a bit of drama, from family to personal issues for Olivia. However, the tension between Olivia and her father adds to the story. Olivia has to reconcile her past relationship with her father with the man he is today. I found it interesting to learn about Lewy Body Dementia, which her father suffered from, and it added a little twist to the story.
I enjoyed this novel, even with the unreliable narrators. I think that added extra drama because I didn’t know what they might do next.
We give this book 5 paws up.
About the Author
JULIE CLARK is the New York Times bestselling author of The Lies I Tell and The Last Flight, both of which were also #1 international bestsellers and have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and a goldendoodle with poor impulse control.
