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

Mar. 15, 2025

Julie Clark is back with another chilling tale.PEOPLE can exclusively share that the bestselling thriller author, known for novels like 2020’sThe Last Flightand 2022’sThe Lies I Tell,will publish a new book next year.The Ghostwriteris forthcoming from Sourcebooks Landmark in summer 2025, in a deluxe first printing with designed edges.Olivia Dumont has spent her life trying to hide the fact that she’s Vincent Taylor’s daughter. A famed horror writer, Vincent has a past as dark as his books: in 1975, his siblings were found dead in the family’s home, and Vincent has long been accused of being the person who killed them.Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.Now a ghostwriter who is struggling financially in adulthood, Olivia becomes desperate enough to take on a harrowing assignment: ghostwriting her father’s final book. But Olivia soon learns that Vincent’s upcoming release is not a novel, but a way for him to share what really happened the tragic night that his family was murdered.Need to know more? Read below for an exclusive excerpt fromThe Ghostwriter.

“I know what your dad did.”It was the year I’d turned 10, and one of my classmates had slid onto the bench next to me at school, his voice a hot whisper in my ear.I set down my bologna sandwich. “He wrote a book.” I hadn’t been wild about my father’s meteoric rise as an author. He talked louder. Drank more than usual — which had been a lot to begin with — and traveled more, leaving me home with his assistant, Melinda, a young woman who now let herself into our house with her own key. Who would tell me my father was too busy to sign my math tests or quiz me for spelling.My father’s success had caught the attention of the literary world — his books were now sitting alongside Stephen King on the shelves and bestseller lists, and in some weeks even outselling him. But it had caught the attention of the rest of Ojai as well, sparking whispers and memories that became loud enough for the kids to notice.

The boy, whose name I no longer remember, had shaken his head, eyes sparkling with glee to be the one to tell me. To shatter my childhood right there in the school cafeteria. “Your dad killed his brother and sister. Murdered them in their own home.”

Julie Clark.Eric A. Reid Photography

Eric A. Reid Photography

“You’re a liar,” I’d accused him. “You’re just jealous.”But the reaction of the other kids around us stole the certainty from my words. Because there wasn’t the scornful skepticism I’d expected, but rather a silent shock that he’d had the guts to say aloud 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 tale told in hushed whispers at slumber parties alongside Ouija boards and visits from Bloody Mary in the mirror at midnight. Two kids, just like us, stabbed to death in 1975 while the entire town celebrated the official beginning of summer at the annual Ojai Carnival 100 yards behind their house.

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

The Ghostwriterwill be published on June 3, 2025 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.

source: people.com