She Treads Softly: The Ghostwriter

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

The Ghostwriter

The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark
6/3/25; 368 pages
Sourcebooks

The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark is a very highly recommended, clever mystery and family drama that unfolds in two timelines while exploring a tragic event from the past.

Olivia Dumont is a ghostwriter who has been estranged from her father, the famous horror writer Vincent Taylor, for years so she is shocked when she is offered a job writing a book for him. It isn't a horror novel. It's a memoir focused on events from June, 1975, when his two teenage siblings, Danny and Poppy, were murdered in their Ojai, California, home. Throughout Olivia's childhood in Ojai rumors were always swirling around that Vincent was responsible for the murders.

Olivia accepts the job because she needs the money. Once she arrives in Ojai, she learns that Vincent is in poor health and has been diagnosed with Lewey body dementia. He has notes for the book, but can no longer write it. Olivia must try to decipher his notes and piece together clues from other sources to try and determine what really happened to Danny and Poppy fifty years ago.

The writing and plotting is excellent in this slow-burn mystery/thriller/family drama. While the start feels slow moving, the suspense and tension keep building up along with the pace as more information is uncovered and Olivia tries to piece clues together. It is unclear if Vincent is telling Olivia the truth or if he even honestly recalls what happened. The NDA Olivia signed also prohibits many of the obvious research routes she would normally take.

The narrative follows two time lines. In the present Olivia is searching for information in Vincent's notes, Poppy's diary and later her films, and some interviews. From the past are flashbacks and observations from Poppy and Vincent in 1975. The balance between following Olivia in the present and the scenes in the past work exceptionally well together in the narrative while proving more insight, clues, and twists. They are all compelling characters as you follow their stories. The final denouement pushed the rating up on this one.

The Ghostwriter is an excellent choice for those who enjoy a murder mystery mixed with a family drama. Thanks to Sourcebooks for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.