"The Ghostwriter" By Julie Clark: Review/Giveaway

Review by Linda Kay Hardie 

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of the book and a link to purchase it.

Who’s ghosting who? Julie Clark’s new thriller chills and thrills in a ghastly, ghostly way.

A ghostwriter writes the famous person’s autobiography while the celebrity gets their name on the cover as though they’d written the book themselves. Sometimes the ghostwriter gets some credit, maybe a mention in the acknowledgments, a quick “thanks.” Or they might see their name in tiny letters after the famous person’s like: “CELEBRITY with ghostwriter.”

In the mystery/thriller/suspense genres, “ghostwriter” conjures up other meanings. Perhaps a biography could be written using figurative ghosts of memories past? Maybe first-person stories told in recovered diaries, the words of long-dead ghosts. Or even specters of lies told for so long that they haunt the person who tried in vain to protect their physical or mental safety? In suspenseful genres, even a literal ghost might materialize to tell the story itself. Don’t worry. No spoilers here. I’m just spit balling, because Julie Clark’s new thriller swerves and veers so much that I don’t know what I can reveal without ruining the fun.

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The Ghostwriter has a tone that could potentially use any of these tropes. Clark is skilled in subterfuge, unreliable narrators, plot twists and turns, and other illusions. But in her hands, the deceptions turn out to be expert sleight-of-hand, and at the denouement, the reader realizes the clues were visible all along, but the crafting wove it all into the story where the breadcrumb trail disappeared completely. Perhaps like a ghost?

Olivia Dumont was a successful ghostwriter before this novel begins, writing the life stories of famous people, but a single misstep throws her career off a cliff. Olivia overestimates what a woman can get away with saying in public. She bluntly criticizes the morals of a successful male ghostwriter who revels in glorifying the lives of less-than-honorable men, giving them a boys-will-be-boys excuse for some nasty sins. Olivia is about to lose her house to pay her attorney fees and a large settlement to the man she told too much truth about. Publishers won’t touch her until bigger-than-Stephen-King horror author Vincent Taylor asks for Olivia by name to ghostwrite his memoir. When he was a teen, Taylor was suspected of killing his teenaged brother and sister. He’s also Olivia Taylor Dumont’s father. Her memories of him are mixed between the thoughtful puzzle games he set up for her and his angry outbursts. He sent her off to an overseas boarding school at age 14.

Nothing here is a spoiler. A prologue shows the young Olivia facing the rumors about her father and the unsolved murders that happened five years before she was born. Initially she didn’t believe this gossip about a father who seemed loving. But he was moody, sometimes quick to anger. And why did her mother disappear without a trace so long ago that Olivia barely remembers her? This ghostwriter must face her own ghosts. To say anything more would ruin this exceptional, labyrinthine novel.

Wow, highly recommended. Also, as a bonus, the first edition hardcover has printed edges on the book pages showing fire consuming the ghostwriter’s work in bright orange flames and black ash. Is Olivia burning down her own life willy-nilly? Or is Vincent a psychotic killer out to finish destroying the only family he has left? Or is there another possibility? Hmm.

To enter to win a copy of The Ghostwriter, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line "ghostwriter,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen June 21, 2025. US residents only and you must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via email please include your mailing address in case you win. If entering via comment please include your email address so we can contact you. You can read our privacy statement here if you like. 

 Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section in Kings River Life and in our mystery category here on KRL News & Reviews. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. And check out our new mystery podcast which features mystery short stories and first chapters read by local actors! 

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Linda Kay Hardie, who writes horror and crime short stories, regularly attends a three-day writers retreat at a haunted arts center that began its life as a hospital in the Northern Nevada town where Mark Twain tried his hand at silver mining. Many local writers chronicle their bizarre encounters with ghosts there, but Linda isn’t one of them. Still, she assures skittish writers not to fear the local spirits because they spend their time harassing her. “I don’t believe in them, and that pisses them off,” she explains. Linda’s latest twisted story appears in A Killing at the Copa (White City Press, 2025) with another offbeat story appearing soon in Gag Me with a Spoon (White City Press, 2025). More at whitecitypress.com/product/copa/MM/12/

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.