Twists in the Tale

By Raymond Nickford

In Vienna, schizophrenic, Sam Baldock, is haunted by Beethoven in A Musical Calling. Nurse Amanda is drawn into the wiles of a Harley Street hypnotist. The roots of a yew tree deliver more than sap in Family Tree. Emily is determined to 'reach out' to her dead husband.

Stories blending eeriness, suspense, tenderness and the poignancy of lives which could be yours when driven to extremity.

STORIES

A Musical Calling - Schizophrenic Sam Baldock is given a day out - his last - at the Beethoven Museum in Vienna where he believes he is called by the spirit of Beethoven. What will his little daughter witness at the top of those winding steps to the Pasqualati House on the Molkerbastie, which once led to the rooms of the composer in 1810?

Father’s Helping Hand - Octogenarians Hubbald & Bros, piano tuners at their Old Chapel workshops, seem almost too kind when they choose to make a gift of a Steinway to their ‘favourite’ customer.

Nanny’s Friends - ‘She calls them her little friends,’ Suzy slurred. ‘Miss Harlow says that when it’s time for a doll to “stay” with her, she “prepares” eyes, really beauuuutiful eyes for it.’

The Rum Barber’s Baby - Harry the barber was vast; a Sumo wrestler without the wrestle but it was only after two vandals had sprayed his shop window in boot-high capitals with I’M TOO FAT TO - - - - that he’d finally come to hate himself.

NOVELLA – A ROMANCE

A Face in a Corridor - Can a paranoid stop himself from destroying she alone who might have shown him what love could be?
At night-time her teacher enters the closed and dimly lit college buildings and, in the empty classrooms and the silent corridors, he tries to come to terms with what seem the appearances of the students and their culture.
They have so reduced him and, in turn, made him suspicious of the girl he wants to trust as his passport to their acceptance.

Reviews

' Atmospheric, vibrant, spooky page-turner. '

Reay Tannahill - historian, novelist and author of The Seventh Son.

' The sense of atmosphere and place developed is exquisitely detailed. '

Jack Hughes – author of Dawn of Shadows

“ Some of the stories have a cosy fireside start to them but this is probably what makes the sinister the more effective when the narrative drifts into some of its macabre twists.
What the two outwardly endearing old boys do in the supposedly disused crematorium at the back of the converted chapel where they store and repair pianos is often as fiendishly contrived as a Hitchcock film except in miniature. In "The Parchment Recipes", the covers of the book have a 'creeping' similarity to the feel of dried skin but in following the sixteenth century recipes once written in freehand, Emily is able to 'reach out' to her lost husband's spirit, almost as if she is actually touching him. Generally, unsettling yet moving. ”

- Susanna Deakin

• Language: English
• Publisher: XinXii
• Release date: Nov 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9780954696399

Raymond Nickford

Raymond Nickford has said "To me, people are stranger than fiction and in many ways more fascinating."Perhaps this is what first led him to his degree in Philosophy and Psychology from the University College of North Wales and which has subsequently driven him to produce searching character studies in his collected stories "Twists in The Tale", novels and contributions to anthologies in the USA.AUTHOR WEBSITE:http://raymondnickford-psychologicalsuspense.weebly.comOf his novel based in Cyprus, "Aristo's Family," Barbara Erskine, best selling author of "Lady of Hay" has commented on the "beautifully observed characters," the "intriguing and atmospheric scenes," and above all the suspense which made her "want to read on".Part Greek Cypriot, the author was raised amongst Greeks in England and has travelled extensively through Cyprus. He has particular admiration for the village people whose company and hospitality he has enjoyed so much in the Troodos Mountains.Though people may be stranger than fiction, still, souls - particularly troubled ones, the outsider, the lonely and any driven to extremity –have been indispensable for Raymond's paperback novels, "Aristo's Family," "Mister Kreasey's Demon" and "Twists in the Tale".Raymond believes that his teaching of English in colleges and as a private tutor visiting pupils from "shacks to mansions" and seeing the "absolutely delightful to the vaguely Little Lord Fauntleroy" has informed his latest literary thriller "A Child from the Wishing Well."This features an eerie music tutor, her young pupil Rosie and Rosie's paranoid and inept father, Gerard, who nevertheless yearns to mean more to his daughter.The E-book version of "A Child from the Wishing Well" is now published and available to buy.MEET THE AUTHOR:susansbooks37.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/meet-the-author-raymond-nickford/FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/raymond.nickford25REVIEWSCandace Bowen - author of A Knight of Silence, has written:“Growing up in a suburb of Chicago, the first scary movie I remember seeing was the 1965 Bette Davis movie, The Nanny. To this day, that movie has always stuck with me as one of the great psychological thrillers of all time.For me, A Child from the Wishing Well, by Raymond Nickford, is reminiscent of that movie. Ruth, the eerie music tutor, and Gerard strap you in, and take you on a psychological thrill-ride to the very end.”Stephen Valentine - author of Nobody Rides for Free, comments:"The author gives great voice to his characters, describing well their idiosyncrasies. A good story must either go deep or wide, and with his background in psychology he goes deep within the human condition. For some adults, the ability to relate to a child does not come naturally, and requires enormous if not awkward effort. This is an often overlooked subject worth exploring."Raven Clark - author of The Shadowsword Saga says:"Raymond Nickford has a writing voice that has to be one of the most unique and intriguing I have come across.The story is both enjoyable and oddly chilling, all the more so for its apparent warmth. The pleasantness of Ruth and her liveliness should seem gentle, grandmotherly and appealing, a sweet old lady one could adore, but reading the trailer, what seems kindly suddenly turns sinister, her upbeat excitability oddly macabre.Each time she says lines like "Our Rosie," and speaks so excitedly, rather than hearing a pleasant old lady, I think of a bird screeching. Fingers down a blackboard.Will Gerard realize what he feels is not a symptom of his disease?And if not, will Heather uncover the truth and save Rosie before the hurricane that is Ruth sweeps her into oblivion?"Raymond confesses to a passion for plump, docile tabbies and is moved by the music and life of the composer Edward Elgar; his interest leading him each year to a cottage in the Malvern Hills and to the Three Choirs Festival. He is a member of the Elgar Society.He is currently working on another psychological suspense," Prey to Her Madonna". Here, the author says, "the intrigue moves between Madeira, an eerie French shrine, an English village and London".