- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Gazelle Drake Publishing (Nov 1 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0954696344
- ISBN-13: 978-0954696344
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11.6 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 200 g
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Product Details |
Product Description
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.
Product Description
A collection of psychological suspense, ghost stories and a romance in the novella: A Face in a Corridor. A MUSICAL CALLING: Schizophrenic Sam Baldock is given a day out - his last - at the Beethoven Museum in Vienna. 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 beautiful 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. A FACE IN A CORRIDOR: Can a paranoid stop himself from destroying she alone who might have loved him?
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ghosts, like dogs, not just for Christmas..., Dec 3 2011
By DuskyHugh's - Published on Amazon.com
I'm not generally persuaded by ghost stories and to be fair only three of the stories actually imply some form of the supernatural but it's likely fair to say that these stories are unique, because of the way the author hints at ghosts without getting in to bed with them, so to speak.When Emily tries to "reach out" to her dead husband, Berny, in The Parchment Recipes, we don't see or have implied an apparition yet there is an overwhelming sense of presence and definitely a convincing handling of the idea that spirits can - through one psychology or another - tenuously connect. Although Nickford is a condensed writer, economical with back story, I agree with Barbara Erskine's comment and, like her, these stories did "make me want to keep reading".
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good for a wintry night - if all the doors are well locked and bolted, Dec 10 2011
By Gerry Gibbons - Published on Amazon.com
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".
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unusual, unpredictable and unnerving, Dec 7 2011
By RupertBear7 - Published on Amazon.com
If you don't mind an author who obviously enjoys playing with language and you're prepared to occasionally 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 could live with the characters and not easily forget them, even though they're not all the type you'd like to meet on a dark night down a narrow alley or, for that matter, on a Harley Street hypnotist's couch in London, as in "Voices of a Hypnotist".
On the whole, short on gore but a quality read.
Hints of Hitchcock in Nickford's style, each story being a mischievous but satisfying "twist" as the title promises.
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