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Overview
The narrative is set in Cyprus; the main characters being, Aristo, an archaeologist who has turned his Paphos home into a small private museum, and his teenage son, Pavlos, who now live alone together.
Aristo's obsessive need to trace and belong to his family - even though he is told they were all burnt and left unidentifiable in the Turkish invasion of the island - has estranged his English wife, and is gradually distancing his only child, while in turn, Pavlos has an increasing need to belong to a father who will make time for him.
As the practices and those assembled at Aristo's late-night museum 'staff meetings' unfold themselves to Pavlos, the boy is led deeper into a sinister confrontation with ancient and unquiet souls.
The author, part Greek Cypriot, was raised amongst Greeks in England and has travelled extensively through Cyprus. He has particular admiration for the village people whose company he has enjoyed so much in the Troodos Mountains.
Reviews:
A moving but uplifting story of a broken Anglo-Greek family in Cyprus -
Aristo's 'family' is furtive, creepy, occupying isolated dwellings in the Troodos mountains at night, uncannily out of tune with contemporary life - in fact, behaving just a bit too much like ancients in a modern world for comfort, as Aristo's only teenage son, Pavlos, gradually comes to realise, the family are not just shadowy but only too sinister.
When Aristo is regressed in hypnosis he unexpectedly begins to reveal to Pavlos uncanny knowledge of ancient Greek individuals whose personalities still seem, in part, to inhabit the family he believes is his, living up in the Troodos mountains. The family, as he calls the group, want to make Pavlos 'clean', after Aristo had discovered his boy taking much more than verbal comfort from the middle-aged and charming Katherine, an archaeologist colleague of Aristo's.
At times, I did I have to take the threat of the cleansing ritual and the ancient misuse of the scythe with a pinch of salt but there was no obvious striving after sensation and shock and, through all the looming menace, Pavlos wants only to trust that his father is not leading him to a family which will harm him but that, after all, his Dad is only trying to get closer to him.
On the whole, when the scythe was not looming round the corner, a moving story always was.
Phillip Mason
The opening chapters offered no Big Bang sensation and yet I was hooked early, partly by the dry humour in which the author dips Mr Spiropoulos, the education inspector and some of the Cypriot villagers, and partly because of the feeling that, like the teenage Pavlos who is hypnotised by his father, Aristo, I felt I myself was gradually sinking alongside the character into the trances, which Aristo excuses as the 'Greek lessons' for his boy.
Through hypnotism, Aristo wants to convince his son there is a wider family, even though the authorities say his family were burnt beyond recognition when the Turks invaded Cyprus. The strangeness of the act made me read on to find out whether Aristo was really as unloving as the sessions would suggest or whether he was just a desperately lonely man. In turn, Pavlos craves to be closer to his Dad but when the weird family take on an ancient connection up in the deserted Troodos mountains at night, I feared for the son and wondered whether father or son would draw closer or still further apart.
Pavlos turns to the mature, Katherine, another colleague of his father's and into whose charms he ultimately sinks but to what 'kind' of 'family' Aristo is leading him, kept me on board.
Susanna Deakin
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940011374319 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Raymond Nickford |
| Publication date: | 06/06/2011 |
| Sold by: | Smashwords |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 781 KB |
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.
AUTHOR WEBSITE:
http://raymondnickford-psychologicalsuspense.weebly.com
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".
Part Greek Cypriot, the author was raised amongst Greeks in England and has travelled extensively through Cyprus. He has particular admiration for the village people whose company and hospitality he has enjoyed so much in the Troodos Mountains.
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".
Raymond believes that his teaching of English in colleges and as a private tutor visiting pupils from "shacks to mansions" and seeing the "absolutely delightful to the vaguely Little Lord Fauntleroy" has informed his latest literary thriller "A Child from the Wishing Well."
This features an eerie music tutor, her young pupil Rosie and Rosie's paranoid and inept father, Gerard, who nevertheless yearns to mean more to his daughter.
The E-book version of "A Child from the Wishing Well" is now published and available to buy.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
susansbooks37.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/meet-the-author-raymond-nickford/
FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/raymond.nickford25
REVIEWS
Candace Bowen - author of A Knight of Silence, has written:
“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, by Raymond Nickford, is reminiscent of that movie. Ruth, the eerie music tutor, and Gerard strap you in, and take you on a psychological thrill-ride to the very end.”
Stephen Valentine - author of Nobody Rides for Free, comments:
"The author gives great voice to his characters, describing well their idiosyncrasies. A good story must either go deep or wide, and with his 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."
Raven Clark - author of The Shadowsword Saga says:
"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 trailer, 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.
Will Gerard realize what he feels is not a symptom of his disease?
And if not, will Heather uncover the truth and save Rosie before the hurricane that is Ruth sweeps her into oblivion?"
Raymond confesses to a passion for plump, docile tabbies and is moved by the music and life of the composer Edward Elgar; his interest leading him each year to a cottage in the Malvern Hills and to the Three Choirs Festival. He is a member of the Elgar Society.
He is currently working on another psychological suspense," Prey to Her Madonna". Here, the author says, "the intrigue moves between Madeira, an eerie French shrine, an English village and London".