A Woman Reckons with Her Father’s Chilling Legacy in Julie Clark’s Thriller The Ghostwriter (Exclusive)

Julie Clark is back with another creepy story. PEOPLE can exclusively share that bestselling thriller author, known for novels like those from 2020. Last flight and in 2022 The lies I tellhe will publish a new book next year. A ghostwriter out from Sourcebooks Landmark in summer 2025, in a deluxe first edition with designed edges. Olivia Dumont has spent her life trying to hide the fact that she is the daughter of Vincent Taylor. A famous horror writer, Vincent has a past as dark as his books: in 1975, his siblings were found dead in the family home, and Vincent was long accused of murdering them. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up to date with the best PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Now a ghostwriter struggling financially in adulthood, Olivia becomes desperate enough to take on a harrowing task: writing her father’s last book as a humorous story. But Olivia soon learns that Vincent’s upcoming release is not a novel, but a way for him to share what really happened on the tragic night his family was murdered. Need to know more? Read an exclusive excerpt below A ghostwriter.

‘The Ghostwriter’ by Julie Clark.

Sourcebooks Landmark, cover illustration by theBookDesigners, cover design by Erin Fitzsimmons/Sourcebooks

“I know what your dad did.” It was the year I turned 10, and one of my classmates slid onto the bench next to me at school, his voice a hot whisper in my ear. I put down my bologna sandwich. “He wrote a book.” I was not thrilled with my father’s meteoric rise as a writer. He spoke louder. He drank more than usual – which was a lot at first – and traveled more, leaving me at home with his assistant, Melinda, a young woman who now entered our house with her own key. Who would have told me that my father was too busy signing my math tests or quizzing me on spelling. My father’s success caught the attention of the literary world—his books were now sitting alongside Stephen King on the shelves and on the bestseller lists, and in some weeks even surpassing him. But it caught the attention of the rest of Ojai as well, prompting whispers and memories that became loud enough for the children to notice.

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The boy, whose name I no longer remember, shook his head, his eyes shining with joy that he was going to tell me that. To break my childhood there in the school canteen. “Your dad killed your brother and sister. He killed them in his own house.”

Julie Clark.

Photo by Eric A. Reid

“You’re a liar,” I accused him. “You’re just jealous.” But the reaction of the other children around us stole the certainty from my words. Because there wasn’t the dismissive skepticism I was expecting, but rather quiet shock that he had the courage to say out loud what everyone else already knew. That’s how it started. How I discovered the dark secret that lived at the center of my family. From there, the murder of Danny and Poppy Taylor became a story told in hushed whispers at Ouija board parties and Bloody Mary visits in the mirror at midnight. Two kids, just like us, were stabbed to death in 1975 while the entire town was celebrating the official start of summer at the annual Ojai Carnival 100 yards behind their home.

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All of my classmates became experts on the story, despite the fact that Danny and Poppy were dead over 15 years ago by the time it started circulating among them. How Poppy was supposed to meet up with her best friend at the Tilt-A-Whirl after a quick stop at home to get a sweater. How she was ambushed, killed in her own bedroom, while her older brother, Danny, was killed in the hallway, just steps from her rescue. Old newspaper clippings are dug out of closets and carried on vacation like contraband, kids study their class photos. Poppy’s slight build, wavy hair that looked like it would tangle easily, freckles blooming across her cheeks. The way Danny’s face glowed with wasted potential, his bright smile a promise he never kept.

Image of Julie Clark’s novel ‘The Ghostwriter’ with designed borders.

Sourcebooks Landmark, cover illustration by theBookDesigners, cover design by Erin Fitzsimmons/Sourcebooks

They talked about where Danny was found, how desperate he was to reach his little sister, to protect her at the cost of his own life. But Danny failed, Poppy died and their names became the property of others, dragged from the past into the present. Don’t end up like Danny and Poppy. Buried inside the parents’ rote questions. Will an adult be at home? Everything in my childhood suddenly made sense. A soft buzz that seemed to follow us wherever we went. That extra space in the supermarket queue. The phone that never rang for play dates or birthday invitations. I always assumed it was because my mother left when I was five, a shame I carried until someone bigger pushed it away.

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Once I found out, it wasn’t hard to find the albums shoved in the back of my father’s closet. Early photo, grandmother’s floral cursive on back — Danny 9 years, Vince 8 years, Poppy 6 years – lined up on a brown striped couch, posing with cups of hot chocolate in their pajamas. Another, a few years later, playing cards around a small Formica kitchen table, their mother a blur in the background, their father’s cigarette smoke in a gentle swirl rising from an ashtray at the edge of the frame. I have marked the passage of time as the three siblings grow old, years and days approaching June 13, 1975.Derived from A ghostwriter Julie Clark. Used by permission of the publisher, Sourcebooks Landmark. Copyright © 2024 Julie Clark.

A ghostwriter will be published on June 3, 2025 and is available for pre-order now, wherever books are sold.

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