The plot behind The Ghostwriter by Alessandra Torre (A.R. Torre) isn't new - author tells life story to writer before their death* - but in this author's hand, the trope was an absolute winner!
Helena is a famous and successful romance author who lied about the way her husband and child died four years ago. A cancer diagnosis and news she has just a few months to live has galvanised Helena into action and she plans to reveal all in her last ever book. After embarking on the writing process, her health deteriorates to the point she needs help. Helena reaches out to her nemesis in the romance genre and puts aside their year's long rivalry to ask for professional help finishing the memoir. This is the ghostwriter of the title, although the book doesn't focus on them so I'm not clear on the choice of title.
The Ghostwriter is a slow burn mystery and the reader finds out more about Helena's backstory at the same time as the ghostwriter. Chapters of the manuscript are woven into the narrative and we hear from Helena in the first person, her agent Kate and of course the ghostwriter.
Now a gruff and no nonsense woman with no discernible outward warmth, the events which made Helena this way are revealed as she seeks to make peace with her past before her illness claims her. The bond that forms between Helena and the ghostwriter was powerful and left them both changed by the end.
At no time did I have any inkling as to where the story was going, nor was I able to guess at the ending. And wow, what an ending! According to the Author's Note, this is her fourteenth novel and it really shows in the tightness of the plotting and building of suspense.
The Ghostwriter by Alessandra Torre was an expertly crafted domestic thriller and I absolutely loved it. Highly recommended and definitely one of my favourite reads so far this year!
* The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is the best example of this 'author confesses all' trope.
