Book Description

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 ?