Twists in the Tale (Psychological Suspense, the Supernatural and Ghosts S.) [Paperback]

Raymond Nickford (Author)

Book Description

Series: Psychological Suspense, the Supernatural and Ghosts S. | Publication Date: November 1, 2004

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.

Family Tree - Mr Glossop might be a widower, his neighbours said, but it was time he poured acid on all those diseased roots. Was he really going to let his only son have the same degrading end as Mrs Glossop?

Voices of a Hypnotist - She had paid two weeks of her hard-earned salary to ease a phobia of spiders which she thought embarrassing for a nurse to have and now there was something she couldn't quite trust in that voice; a hint of something nearer to Cockney than to Harley Street.

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 Parchment Recipes - Emily clung for life to the bric-a-brac which made a Mausoleum of her home; for sure, in everything Berny had touched, he still lived and somehow she would - she would reach out to him.

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 -
At night-time Amy's 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. Can a paranoid stop himself from destroying she alone who might have shown him what love could be?
 
Tags:  romance, thriller, crime, mystery, travel, literary, relationships, supernatural, psychological, music, ghost, character, atmosphere, barbara erskine

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The first few chapters are atmospheric; intriguing. They made me want to keep reading. The beautifully observed characters and exotic setting have all the makings of a first class novel." Barbara Erskine. "The promise of the early chapters is more than well-maintained. This novel is a real page-turner, worthy of comparison with the early John Fowles The Magus - but distinctively Raymond Nickford." Allen Synge. "An atmospheric, vibrant, almost spooky page-turner that might easily become something of a cult". Reay Tannahill.

From the Inside Flap

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 in - Voices of A Hypnotist. 

The roots of a yew tree deliver more than sap in - Family Tree.

Emily is determined to 'reach out' to her dead husband in the haunted  - The Parchment Recipes. 

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

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Haunted Books (November 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0954696344
• ISBN-13: 978-0954696344
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Raymond Nickford has said that to him, 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 his searching character studies in his collected stories Twists in The Tale, and novels and contributions to anthologies in the USA.

Souls particularly troubled ones, including the outsider, the lonely and any driven to extremity, have been indispensable for his paperback novels, now available in amazon.co.uk KINDLE E-books including: Aristo's Family, Mister Kreasey's Demon and Twists in the Tale .

Of his novel based in Cyprus, Aristo's Family, BARBARA ERSKINE, best selling author of Lady of Hay has commented on the beautifully observed characters, intriguing and atmospheric scenes and, above all, the suspense which made her want to read on.

His favourite producer is ALFRED HITCHCOCK, and he admires the authors Patricia Highsmith, Ian McEwan, Ruth Rendell and Henry James. Raymond is a member of The Society of Authors.

He believes his teaching of English in colleges and as a private tutor visiting pupils from what he describes as shacks to mansions, and meeting the absolutely delightful to the vaguely Little Lord Fauntleroy, has informed his new literary thriller A Child from the Wishing Well.

This new title will also be published in Kindle in August and, as with the above book titles, is already available to buy as an Epub-book from smashwords.com.

It 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 book was selected for the Harper Collins Gold Star Award, May 2010.

Candace Bowen, author of A Knight of Silence, has written of A Child from the Wishing Well : 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.

Raymond confesses to a passion for plump, docile tabbies and says he 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.

The author is currently working on another psychological, Prey to Her Madonna. Here, all he will say is that the intrigue moves between Madeira, an eerie French shrine, an English village and London.  

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Hints of Hitchcock but a refreshing new style, December 13, 2011

By 

Sue Weir (Winslow, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Twists in the Tale (Kindle Edition)

Although there is a very creepy underlying macabre twist hidden until the last in most of these stories, what I found refreshing was the way it was used to pinpoint what had gone wrong in ordinary people's lives when unpredictable events had begun to topple them into dysfunctional relationships with others. Some of the stories are really quite poignant. I'm thinking of the very obese Barry the barber, described as a "Sumo wrestler who'd lost his wrestle" and who becomes humiliated by youths who wander past his shop down a narrow cobbled street in London to spray his windows with graffiti that questions his being impotent because too fat to perform. At first this didn't sound like bedside reading to me but it was actually described in a very individual way which made it moving.

Similarly, Bernie's widow, Emily, tries all sorts of ploys to convince herself that her late husband isn't really dead and she's madly determined to "reach out" in one way or another - which way, is what makes the storyline so mysterious and crept me out. This is in "The Parchment Recipes" where the skin-like feel of the centuries old handwritten recipe book she has found in her attic seems to give the impression that the book is changing in some way and has a life of its own. Although the idea is zany, again its the way the macabre, a bit like in Hitchcock, helps to bring out an individual's vulnerability and the hope that there will be another 'twist' which brings the victim a chance of something better in her life that made this worth 4 and possibly 5 stars.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for a wintry night - if all the doors are well locked and bolted, December 10, 2011

By 

Gerry Gibbons - See all my reviews

This review is from: Twists in the Tale (Kindle Edition)

If you don't mind an author who obviously enjoys playing with language and you're occasionally prepared to re-read a passage for the layers of meaning, then Twists in the Tale delivers the thrill of the unexpected and, I thought, without falling into the contrived.
I felt I lived alongside the characters in each story and it was this that made each narrative its own little world, chilling but therefore a welcome escape from the daily 9 am to 5 pm.
The main character, victim or predator, is not easy to forget and drives each story. I wouldn't want to meet most of the characters on a dark night and certainly not down a narrow alley but it's true to say they're all very memorable. Even the smooth and sophisticated Dr Hardacre, as his innocent patient Nurse Miranda can testify, is not the person you want to meet again, particularly not if you're laid on your back on the Harley Street hypnotist's couch in London, as in "Voices of a Hypnotist".

4.0 out of 5 stars Passion, real tenderness and suspense for $1.17, December 7, 2011

By 

Salut d'amour - See all my reviews

This review is from: Twists in the Tale (Kindle Edition)

The romance at the end of these stories which is the novella "A Face in a Corridor" traces the relationship between a teacher, reduced to paranoia by his inner-city streetwise students, and the girl student who he sees as his 'passport' to those he fears are gathering with a hunting knife. The knife-edge trauma, if you'll forgive the poor pun, is nicely contrasted by the real tenderness the author explores between the older man and the teenage girl who, herself is not from the same middle-class educated background as himself.

Coming as it does after all the stories, which themselves are certainly full of mischievous twists by the author, I found the romance just what was needed to make a satisfying whole to this book.
The ebook being at just $1.17 has to be a real steal.

Mister Kreasey's Demon