I’m reading a book of short stories written by Raymond Nickford. Each story in the book, Cupboard of Skeletons, is a psychological thriller about dysfunctional relationships. In the first story, The Hynoptist, 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 me 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.

I haven’t finished reading yet, but I skipped ahead for a peek at the final story. 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.

This riveting book of dark stories, release by Haunted Books, is now available on Amazon.com.