Twists in the Tale
Collected Ghost Stories and Psychological Suspense
Fiction & Literature, Psychological, Short Stories, Literary
| Author: | Raymond Nickford | ISBN: | 9780954696399 |
| Publisher: | Haunted Books | Publication: | June 19, 2015 |
| Imprint: | Language: | English |
| Author: | Raymond Nickford |
| ISBN: | 9780954696399 |
| Publisher: | Haunted Books |
| Publication: | June 19, 2015 |
| Imprint: | |
| Language: | English |
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. Can lonely Joanne, at last, get closer - to her strange Dad ?
Lives which could be ours when driven to extremity, yet lives which can triumph over despair, glimpsed through psychological suspense, ghost stories and a romance.
Raymond Nickford has a degree in Psychology and Philosophy from University College of North Wales. Troubled souls, the lonely, his inspiration.
Other stories include :
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, felt feverish, but couldn't understand why.
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 wanted to trust as his passport to their acceptance.
Editorial reviews :
“Beautifully observed characters, atmospheric, intriguing.”
Barbara Erskine – Sunday Times best selling author of Lady of Hay.
“A real page turner, worthy of the early John Fowles.”
Reay Tannahill - historian, novelist and author of The Seventh Son.
“The first story says more than many novels say in five chapters.....after a few pages 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.
Winner of the Harper Collins Gold Star award May 2010 for :
A Child from the Wishing Well
Gerard's only wish is to escape the dark of chronic paranoia to be closer for his lonely daughter. He accompanies Rosie to violin lessons with eccentric but friendly tutor Miss Stein. But could the old spinster's often foul-smelling “wishing” well really be a place for his wish ?
"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, is reminiscent of that movie."
Candace Bowen Early - author of A Knight of Silence
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. Can lonely Joanne, at last, get closer - to her strange Dad ?
Lives which could be ours when driven to extremity, yet lives which can triumph over despair, glimpsed through psychological suspense, ghost stories and a romance.
Raymond Nickford has a degree in Psychology and Philosophy from University College of North Wales. Troubled souls, the lonely, his inspiration.
Other stories include :
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, felt feverish, but couldn't understand why.
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 wanted to trust as his passport to their acceptance.
Editorial reviews :
“Beautifully observed characters, atmospheric, intriguing.”
Barbara Erskine – Sunday Times best selling author of Lady of Hay.
“A real page turner, worthy of the early John Fowles.”
Reay Tannahill - historian, novelist and author of The Seventh Son.
“The first story says more than many novels say in five chapters.....after a few pages 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.
Winner of the Harper Collins Gold Star award May 2010 for :
A Child from the Wishing Well
Gerard's only wish is to escape the dark of chronic paranoia to be closer for his lonely daughter. He accompanies Rosie to violin lessons with eccentric but friendly tutor Miss Stein. But could the old spinster's often foul-smelling “wishing” well really be a place for his wish ?
"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, is reminiscent of that movie."
Candace Bowen Early - author of A Knight of Silence
