Broken by his street-hardened London students, reduced to paranoia, can Amy's teacher stop himself losing she, alone, he might trust, might have loved ? Mister Kreasey's Demon Visiting his apartment to bring her teacher an overdue essay, Kreasey noticed : "Amy stood on her very highest heels, the ones that gave her an extra three-and-a-half inches over a world that had always seemed to look down on her beyond the narrow backs streets from which she'd been born. On her first visit, she had seemed almost undernourished, shivering in a short skirt with a slit up the side. He'd wanted to tell her that she'd made him happy - just by appearing on his doorstep with her essay and those eyes... eyes which spoke of deprivation and yet held, for him, openness and simplicity more beautiful than he'd seen in any student before. Amy, alone among his students, had tried to help him. She was searching his eyes, confused. He recalled those moments when, beside him in bed, her face had shared that open comic side of her lovemaking with him. He couldn't forget how much she'd tried to be his passport to those roughnecks from classroom 12D... those who always seemed to be gathering with a hunting knife, getting closer... 'Well, are we going to see you in them?' she smiled, still holding his shorts out like a trophy. But as he watched her lips, they seemed to shape like those in a poorly dubbed film where the voice is out-of-sync with the words... reminding him to 'eat up' all his tablets and then he'd never be 'cut up' . " Editorial Reviews : " An atmospheric, vibrant, almost spooky page-turner and a psychological suspense, both moving and tender. " Reay Tannahill - historian, novelist and author of The Seventh Son. " As a former London teacher, Raymond Nickford has nailed the teacher's fear of the 'Lord of the Flies' pack mentality perfectly. And what a cliffhanger ! " Marsha Moore - author of The Hating Game. The author, Raymond Nickford, has a degree in Psychology and Philosophy from University College of North Wales. Troubled souls, the lonely, his inspiration. raymondnickford-psychologicalsuspense.weebly.com Other Titles Family Tree : Stories of Love Beyond the Grave 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. Twists in the Tale 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 ? Aristo's Family Aristo, private museum curator in Paphos, Cyprus, living alone with his sole surviving son Pavlos, is obsessed with his belief that he still has surviving family, even though told they were all burned during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. In his preoccupation he has come to to neglect Pavlos. Yet both Aristo's and his son's deepening need to belong, so long mutually exclusive, are at the core of this novel. Father and son... or strangers forever ?

Village teacher, Matt Kreasey, is reduced to paranoia when confronted by the roughnecks he must teach at his new inner-city post in London. Between flickerings of reality and delusion, his love for his student Amy is strained. Could she be one of those always gathering with the hunting knife that has already ended the life of a colleague -- and can a paranoid now stop himself from destroying she who might have loved him?

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.

A book of short stories, each a psychological thriller about dysfunctional relationships. In the first story, "The Hypnotist", a young nurse named Miranda goes to see a psychologist, Dr. Harditch, for hypnosis to ease her phobia of spiders. I guess you could say he cured her, but I wouldn’t want to be one of his patients. This is not a story for the squeamish. It’s intense, descriptive, fast-paced, and reminds of stories from Tales From the Crypt. The second story, "Haunted by Amy", is ten chapters long and is about a former school teacher, Matthew, and the teenage student, Amy, with whom he had an affair. He suspects her of murdering his friend Philip. But he also admits that he might be clinically paranoid. "The Parchment Recipes" is a paranormal mystery about a widow with a not-so-nice mother. The widow finds a parchment in her kitchen late one night, and mysterious things begin to happen. Atmospheric scenes and poignant themes centering around odd, troubled characters whose lives are driven to extremity, drawn on, still, by the tantalizing hope - sometimes delivered by fate or fortune - of happiness. Moving, dysfunctional lives and relationships; hypnotist and patient, a strained romance, paranoid father and daughter, eccentrics, making normal relationships difficult. Some ghostly presences but the 'Cupboard of Skeletons' is more a euphemism for people with embarrassing secrets coming to haunt and test their lives and how, despite despair, they try to find something of their dreams. REVIEWS: "Beautifully observed characters, atmospheric, intriguing." Barbara Erskine - best selling author of Lady of Hay. "Vibrant, spooky, a real page-turner." Reay Tannahill - historian and author of The Seventh Son. "Skellies in the Closet? Everybody has them. Dark secrets. Troubled pasts. Or the repeated inability to hit the mark. When our spirits are low, we crave dark music. Just as medicinal, however, are well-crafted stories of things macabre, chronicles of lives that take us either in or outside of ourselves. Or both. The stories are about living and choices and missteps; they will undoubtedly haunt your thoughts for some time. Nickford's prose is mesmerizing, yet his delightful dry humour arises just often enough to charm us along the way." John Campbell - author of Walk to the Paradise Garden "All the characters are built up so stealthily we can fail to notice that odd behaviour could develop into obsession and dark foreboding secrets." Daniel Manning - author of No Compatibility. "The meticulous, obsessive nature of paranoia is beautifully depicted." Jann King - author of Making Connections. "Eccentrics abound and yet what chills is that for the most part the people in this collection seem so normal - on the surface. They are like friends whose past or darker secrets you'd never have thought of questioning... until right up there next to you when you're completely alone with them and the real chill dawns." - Ralph Porter "A brilliant piece of work tapping into the psychological attributes of its characters." T.L. Tyson - author of Seeking Eleanor. "The sense of atmosphere and place developed is exquisitely detailed." Jack Hughes - author of Dawn of Shadows. EPIGRAPH “Thus when I come to shape here at this table between my hands the story of my life and set it before you as a complete thing, I have to recall things gone far, gone deep, sunk into this life or that and become part of it; dreams, too, things surrounding me, and the inmates, those old half-articulate ghosts who keep up their hauntings by day and night… shadows of people one might have been; unborn selves.” – from Bernard in "The Waves" by Virginia Woolf.

The author's degree in Psychology and Philosophy from the University College of North Wales, together with an interest in the lonely, the outsider and those who have to contend with dysfunctional relationships and loss have been much of the inspiration for this book. Meet the author interview: raymondnickford-psychologicalsuspense.weebly.com A collection of character-driven literary and psychological suspense stories which - though they involve loss within family and in relationships - nevertheless get inside the characters who are left behind and reveal, through fiction, how hurt and the longing for those lost can find resolution - where it may not be expected... The collection opens with "Family Tree" - Mr Glossop might be a widower, his neighbours said, but it was high time he poured acid on the base of the old yew tree, the roots of which stretched well into the grounds of the Municipal Cemetery . Was he really going to let his only son have the same degrading end as Mrs Glossop? Would gossip open out to truths best laid to rest? "Reaching Out to Bernie" is widow Emily's dearest wish, but it is neither to seance nor spiritualism that she turns but rather an antique which has come into her possession and, for too long, has been collecting dust in her attic. Emily clung for life to the bric-a-brac which made a Mausoleum of her home; for sure, in everything Bernie had touched, he still lived and somehow she would - she would reach out to him. In " A Farewell to Father" 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, Joanne, witness at the top of those damp spiralling steps to the top rooms of the old Pasqualati House on the Molkerbastie, which once led to the rooms of the composer in 1810?

Gerard's wish is to break out of paranoia and mental illness to re-discover daughter Rosie's love for her father. He takes her to violin lessons and tries to trust Ruth, Rosie's tutor, to help him to know how to bond with his daughter. Is the eerie music tutor Ruth's foul-smelling garden well a place where wishes happen or is Rosie in danger from which her ill father can still rescue her ? Ashamed he cannot relate to his daughter, Rosie, Gerard accompanies and stays with her for violin lessons at the home of tutor, Ruth Stein. Ruth, fascinating him for her musical sensitivity, becomes a confidante. Against his better judgement and his wife's reservations - the paranoid, Gerard, can only cling to believing the tutor can bring him closer to Rosie. Soon, he must wrestle with his suspicions again, for Ruth mothers Rosie, almost smothers... Reaching out to a broken doll, propped in the darkness at the bottom of Ruth's garden well, Gerard wants to believe what he touches and smells is just the decay of sacks enfolding a doll; the closest to a child that the lonely old spinster could cling. Investigating, Gerard's fears for Rosie’s safety mount. Rosie draws closer to her father, notices his new concern but, if she is in real danger, can he save her? If he needs to save her, can Gerard triumph over the emotional void of paranoia; feel, accept, he and Rosie could share the love of which others speak? REVIEWS : Candace Bowen Early - author of A Knight of Silence : " 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. Ruth and Gerard strap you in, and take you on a psychological thrill-ride to the very end. " Raven Clark - author of The Shadowsword Saga : " 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 pitch, 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. " Stephen Valentine - author of Nobody Rides for Free : " The author gives great voice to his characters, describing well their idiosyncrasies. A good story must either go deep or wide, and with Nickford's 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. " Tony Brady - author of Scenes from an Examined Life : " A beautifully constructed scenario emerged. The attic scene vividly describes the significance of the doll in the depth of the well. All the mystery and menace of the story coalesces here. I was taken back years to the 1960s when I read a story by Saki entitled The Lumber Room. Mystery and menace are purely distilled in a distinctive writing style and I was thrilled that that there was still another 10 Chapters in a book that engrosses the reader from the opening passage. " Burgio - author of A Grain of Salt : " This is an intriguing story: is Gerald being overly possessive toward his daughter or is Miss Stein really a threat? Every parent is aware today that he or she needs to supervise their child's friends. But a violin teacher? I liked Gerald because of his predicament. This should have a wide appeal because it touches parents so personally. Good read. " A. R. Taylor - author of Sex, Rain, and Cold Fusion : " Full of dark shadings and menace. I like the tenderness of the father's feelings."