Aristo's Family

Book excerpt: ARISTO’S obsessive need to trace and belong to his family - even though he was told they were all burnt and left unidentifiable during the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus - 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. Father and son - or strangers forever ? As the practices at Papas’ late-night museum ‘staff meetings’ unfold themselves to Pavlos, the boy is led deeper into a sinister confrontation with what Papas calls his ‘family', but which brings Pavlos, through the ancient face-masks and relics, to unquiet souls of Greeks believed to have been thousands of years dead. A strong blend of eeriness, suspense, an outsider's need to belong and the poignancy of lives which could be yours when driven to extremity. Editorial Reviews : " 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 - best selling author of Lady of Hay. " 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 - and yet the book is distinctively Raymond Nickford. Atmospheric, vibrant,spooky. " Reay Tannahill - Historian 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 psychological suspense as poignant and powerful as Nickford’s Greek sojourn in his book Aristo’s Family. " - Haunted Books Meet the author: susansbooks37.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/meet-the-author-raymond-nickford/ 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, 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