Slow Poison opens in Amsterdam in the days around the feast of Saint Nicholas in December in the mid 1980’s.
The brutal slaying of a British tourist and the subsequent arrest and imprisonment of a young football supporter sparks off an orgy of violence. But the killing is no random act. The boy is innocent. The real killer returns to England to begin the final chapter of an obsessive campaign of revenge spanning several decades.
The twisted acts of violence and vengeance are punctuated by the pages of a stolen diary written in the dark days of the second world war. The killer identifies with the unspeakable horrors of the death camp as he coldly wreaks revenge for a series of traumatic events that took place in the mid 1950s on a Gloucestershire council estate.
The story culminates with an abduction and a bloody siege high in the snowbound Cotswold hills.
BLOODSTONES is available on Amazon
Death, lust and infidelity on a summer’s day. Lives will change forever in the idyllic Cotswold countryside deep in the heart of the Bloodstones.
Summer has arrived in a Cotswold village at the edge of the Severn Plain. Olivia Lowell is an unassuming person in her early fifties preparing for an exhibition of her watercolours in the local church during the village fete. Her newest work is a departure in style, an exorcism of her creative past. Her acute sense of detail coupled with her changing physical state alters her perception of her ordered life and the lives of those around her.
Her husband, Gerald, is involved with a young girl. Olivia suspects nothing at first, but is uneasy about the changes within her and in the changes she notices in Gerald. During the fete, a body is discovered in the woods above the village. With a murder investigation in progress, the village is in turmoil. Gerald is missing, and Olivia's world is turned upside down.
In the days following the murder, Olivia re-evaluates her safe and secure existence and discovers a person within herself of whom she had lost sight.
Splinters & Sparks, A Collection Of Words 1971-2017 draws from Cas’s rich seam of poems and lyrics written over the past five decades. The 2017 edition has been extensively updated and revised with new works.
Many of the words form part of Cas’s musical projects including solo projects and collaborative work with the band Kuhl.
The book is divided into four sections, each covering a phase of writing and their recordings. The words chosen form part of ‘A Twist Of Time’, ‘The Boy In The Attic’, ‘West Country Boy’ and Kuhl’s ‘The Circus of Outrageous’. The albums will be released in September 2017, but selected tracks are can be found here
Comments;
What is interesting to me is the way the underlying themes integrate with the story in such a way as to be of equal importance and function. The story, although taunt and compelling, I think, requires the underpinning sense of waste and sorrow that this tale of vengeance so brilliantly demonstrates. There is a tangible sense that whatever Francis does it will never expunge or heal the wounds he carries. I think this is heightened by the connection to the holocaust, because, on a larger scale, there is nothing that will obliterate the memory of such sadness.
Intriguing, raw, a matching style as far as the overall tone and dialogues as well: very crude yet not offensively so as they go well with the somber ambiance of this story. I found myself wanting to know more, more about The Six, about the little girl, the investigation, the cops and the place with its culture which is unfamiliar to me. One can almost smell the booze and cigarette smoke, leather jackets and wet pavement. I give it a high score if only for virtue of successfully drawing me into this gloomy underworld of violence, prostitution, drugs and intrigues. So well written that it took me a while to escape the revolting world you're painting with words. I went to my kitchen and poured myself a scotch. Was it to get in the mood? Hardly. Your text got me there effortlessly. I was disturbed by the imagery you so craftily flung at me. I'll read more as I had to stop and catch my breath by the 3rd. chapter. In a nutshell? Bravo!
I have just read eleven chapters of your book. It is so dark and most of the characters are so twisted and cruel, it is intriguing but disturbing at the same time. To be honest, i cant bear to read any more. It is really well put together, which cant have been easy as it is such a complex story with so many threads together. Your writing is powerful and i am sure it will stay with me for some time, but it is too dark for me. I wish you all the best with it. Lucy S
Slow Poison has a breathtaking desperation about it from the very first line, and you are able to keep up that tension with every paragraph. All of the action and partying made me tired! The crassness of the dialogue is so utterly believable in this setting, I worry about the research put into it! Fantastically vile and fun to read. That's right, it is filthy and fun to read. Julie
This is so gritty and powerful a read; I had to stop and ask myself did I want to be witness to or endure the slow poison that spreads across the page with your nasty characters.
To experience the world of the mindless football hooligans as they wreak their way across Amsterdam. But then we are introduced to some more likeable people only to learn that their fate is to become the catalyst for even more horrible encounters.
I wanted to stop reading, but I could not as your tight dialogue and setting had gripped me in your remorseless tirade of slime and evil as these losers are swept to their doom.
My goodness this is excellent and I see now why you found my book so different a read. I loved your wonderful descriptions, whether they are just a few lines or whole passages that brought the red-light district to life.
I rather feel that the next chapters will be even bleaker, and I cannot say I if am looking forward to reading them. What I do know is that I must find out what happens and why so you have completed the task in making your reader wanting more. Well done. Backed with pleasure and six stars. Ray Jones
Casimir, the time and effort you put into your craft is immediately apparent. Although I am not particularly familiar with the genre 'Slow Poison' inhabits, your writing style alone was enough to pull me in. You pay particular attention to detail: your characters don't simply drive away in nondescript automobiles, they spend time in Range Rovers and Mercedes. Their music is Philip Glass, the ice cream strawberry-flavored. Lively and often disturbing descriptions help your plot come alive.
I also found the classic literature references and quotes well-utilized.
While gritty thrillers aren't necessarily my works of choice, if I was to explore that style I would certainly start with Casimir Greenfield. Keep up the good work - something tells me you've been proofing and revising 'Slow Poison' for quite some time.
Thomas Gabriel
Cas, Justice must be done. Sliding in and out of SP was an unsatisfactory way of reading it. Usually I take a paperback or a hardback and read from start to finish in two or three indulgent gulps. I still find it hard to read digital books and my dead tree library is one of my treasures. Last night I suggested to my partner that we take an early night, loaded up both our Galaxy P1000 tablets, and settled down to read SP together. That was 7.30pm. Garda and I often discuss our reads, both being avid readers. Like you, four hours a night is enough sleep for me. We made our usual small talk, Garda being a Melbournian needed some help with the vernacular. At 1.35am I finished it, and twenty minutes later Garda groaned and sighed, turning off her tablet. "I'm disappointed" she said. "Really! Why?" "I've finished it." "Yes, so?" "I'm still hungry. I feel like Oliver Twist wanting more please." This morning I noticed her sneakily loading her Galaxy into her briefcase. "The trouble with you writers," she said, "is that you take months to write a book, and no-talents like me read them in a day and it's not fair." "What's not fair?" "Well, you agonise and struggle to do something like this, and we just consume it like cornflakes at breakfast. That's not fair." "So I gather you like it then?" "It went too fast. I'm taking it to work to read again. I've got a laser printer and I want to print it out. I need to see if it's as good on paper as it was on that stupid tablet." This is the first book she has ever read on an ebook reader. Hates the damn things. If HC doesn't pick this up and run with it so that it's available at Big W I think she will don her assassins gear and come and kill you.
Graham Whittaker