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Book Summary and Reviews of The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark

The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark

The Ghostwriter

A Novel

by Julie Clark

  • Critics' Consensus (10):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • Publishes:
  • Jun 3, 2025, 368 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

From the instant New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight and The Lies I Tell comes a dazzling new thriller.

June, 1975.

The Taylor family shatters in a single night when two teenage siblings are found dead in their own home. The only surviving sibling, Vincent, never shakes the whispers and accusations that he was the one who killed them. Decades later, the legend only grows as his career as a horror writer skyrockets.

Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of Vincent Taylor. Now on the brink of financial ruin, she's offered a job to ghostwrite her father's last book. What she doesn't know, though, is that this project is another one of his lies. Because it's not another horror novel he wants her to write.

After fifty years of silence, Vincent Taylor is finally ready to talk about what really happened that night in 1975.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Clark effortlessly delivers on her clever, metatextual premise in this devilish thriller...[She] keeps readers guessing about Taylor's motives and guilt, all while playing scrupulously fair with the reader. It adds up to a deeply satisfying shocker in the vein of Riley Sager's The Only One Left." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Dark, enigmatic, suspenseful, complex, thought provoking, and heart wrenching, this book is a riveting, five-star read." —Booklist (starred review)

"With a fast-paced plot that blurs boundaries between present and past, along with a psychologically compelling cast of characters, Clark's new thriller is perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell and will have readers reconsidering what it means to write, right, and rewrite personal stories." —Library Journal

"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

"The Ghostwriter is a smart, compulsive, and intelligent thriller. I was hooked from the outset by the clever premise, which is elegantly executed. Julie Clark is fast becoming one of my favorite crime writers." ―Lucy Clarke, author of The Castaways, The Hike, and One of the Girls

"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

This information about The Ghostwriter was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Julie Clark Author Biography

Julie Clark is the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight. It has earned starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal, and the New York Times has called it "thoroughly absorbing". It's been named an Indie Next Pick, a Library Reads Pick, and a Best Book of 2020 by Amazon Editors and Apple Books. Her debut, The Ones We Choose, was published in 2018 and has been optioned for television by Lionsgate. She lives in Los Angeles with her two sons and a golden doodle with poor impulse control.

Author Interview
Link to Julie Clark's Website

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More Recommendations

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