Twists in the Tale: Collected ghost stories and psychological suspense

Raymond Nickford

Nov 2017 · Haunted Books

About this eBook

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

A Musical Calling

Schizophrenic Sam Baldock says he 'hears' Beethoven calling him. For therapy, his doctor and daughter Joanne accompany Sam to the Beethoven Museum in Vienna, once the composer's apartment. Will lonely Joanne, at last, get closer - to her strange Dad ?

Father’s Helping Hand

Eccentric 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. At the back of the chapel is the old crematorium which the brothers are reputed to use for burning irretrievably broken pianos.

Family Tree

The body of Eddy's mother was found entangled in fungus-laden roots of the rotting ancient yew on the cemetery side of the family's garden fence. At nights, Eddy stutters, imploring his father to believe that the tree - or is it his mother - seems to call him. Dad just keeps saying "Grief works in strange ways, boy. You'll heal !" But that tree... Mum... calls. Should he sneak out... to the cemetery side? Or had Mum gone to that cold place which Dad kept saying was "Just death by misadventure, Eddy, as the autopsy stated" ?

Loss of family and loved ones revealing how, for those left behind, hurt and longing can find resolution - where unexpected.

Voices of a Hypnotist

There was something Miranda couldn't quite trust as those haemorrhage-red lips of Dr Harditch shaped above her like writhing worms and she felt herself once more losing herself to trance. She was mindful of the private hypnosis under which she would very soon be his again... to mould as easily as once was her mother's pastry dough rolled out on a board. Still, yield she must, for even though she had paid over two weeks of her hard-earned salary as a nurse to ease a chronic phobia of spiders, the panic attacks had to go - before her job did.

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 beautiful eyes for it." After the words had welled up from her, Suzy shivered, feverish, but couldn't understand why.

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. But he would produce a baby... somehow, he would.

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 his street-hardened students.

They have so reduced him and, in turn, made him suspicious of the girl he wants to trust as his passport to their acceptance.

Meet the author interview :

susansbooks37.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/meet-the-author-raymond-nickford/

Editorial reviews

'Beautifully observed characters, atmospheric, intriguing.'

Barbara Erskine - best selling author of Lady of Hay.

'A real page turner, worthy of the early John Fowles.

Might easily become something of a cult.'

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

'Raymond Nickford's worlds are so claustrophobic they are almost unbearable to read - yet read we must. The first paragraph of this novel says more than many say in five chapters.....after a few chapters I am engrossed.'

Jane Alexander - author of Samael.

'There is so much to like here - the characters, the settings, the story; emotional, intriguing and full of human interest. Another winning combination.'

Andrew Wright - author of Sanctuary's Loss.

Ratings and reviews

No séances or rituals, as such, in this collection yet beneath the sometimes cosy fireside beginnings the macabre lurks in deeper waters - deeply hidden at least as the secrets these haunted characters keep behind a polite smile. A good example would be the ready smiles of the two grey haired piano tuners who repair pianos in their converted Methodist chapel which they've made their workshop. Sounds innocent enough until you learn of the old disused crematorium out the back yard and the brothers stoking up the furnace once again to dispose of knackered upright pianos. The furnace might be hot but I felt the chill when the brothers, both equipped with plastic smiles are uncannily generous in making a gift of a Steinway grand piano to their "favourite" customer. Sure, I sometimes found I needed to suspend disbelief but, granted this is fiction, I still enjoyed being lured into the false sense of security, even if the quality of life could be seriously shortened for some of the hapless haunted. I think I can say that most of the stories had as good chill factor in their own way and yes the characters linger with me.

I found these stories gripped slowly but then tightened a bit like I imagine a python's might slithering around the neck. The chill seemed to come not so much from the usual gothic stock in trade of shadows, glowing candles, cellars and storms but more from the sort of Jekyll and Hyde dual personalities of the sometimes alluring but too often devious charmers within. This was specially true I thought of Voices of a Hypnotist and the eerie Father's Helping Hand.

THE DEVIL GOT DRUNK and mumbled something that sounded like "ALBURNEN!" The Poets of History quite often utililized the very same word referring to tree-sap. What is the devil trying to say?? "I'LL BURN 'EM!!! A BOOK THAT SAYS WHAT IT'S TRYING TO SAY AND DOES WHAT ITS AUTHOR SAYS IT'S GOING TO DO...FROM JAMES MICHAEL CHAPESKIE

About the author

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.

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," the "intriguing and atmospheric scenes," and above all the suspense which made her "want to read on".

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", Cupboard of Skeletons" and "A Child from the Wishing Well".

The last was winner of the Harper Collins gold star award in May 2010. 

AUTHOR WEBSITE: 

http://raymondnickford-psychologicalsuspense.weebly.com

MEET THE AUTHOR : 

susansbooks37.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/meet-the-author-raymond-nickford/

 

Facebook :

https://www.facebook.com/raymond.nickford25