Ghostwriter

Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont, after becoming publishing persona non grata for publicly (though accurately) insulting a bigger-selling author in the same line of work, finds herself reluctantly accepting a job ghostwriting her estranged father’s memoirs. Her father - bestselling horror author Vincent Taylor - has long lived under the shadow of being suspected of killing his two siblings when the three were teenagers, and, as he is suffering from Lewy Body Dementia, can no longer read and is losing his ability to remember things clearly, wants to take the opportunity to tell his side of the story for the first time and potentially mend his relationship with his daughter through this gesture.

The Ghostwriter is not only a compelling mystery for mystery-lovers and true-crime fans, as we pick up clues alongside Olivia - but also get a special insight through chapters told through the eyes of the three siblings in 1975 - it is also about the ways families can hurt each other, sometimes by trying to protect them - or themselves - and about how those hurts can be mended. There is also an undercurrent of feminism as we learn about similarities between Olivia and her aunt Poppy, both of whom were feminist activists 30 years apart, and, it was standing up to misogyny that put Olivia into the position of accepting the job as her father’s ghostwriter. As she says, “This is the consequence of speaking out as a woman. We are labeled hysterical, emotional, unreliable, and finally, incompetent.”

Julie Clark expertly weaves the the timelines and points of view of Danny, Vince, and Poppy in 1975 and Olivia - and the interviews and evidence she uncovers - in 2025, letting us get to know all the characters but never knowing who was reliable and not knowing until the final pages what really happened to the Taylor siblings and had me staying up past by bedtime to get to them.