The Payout Game is the third of the Garda Inspector Crowe series that started with A Kind of Drowning and Malign Intent.
There is an odd sensation when you finish a project when you type ‘THE END.’ A mix of elation and anti-climax; and that is how I felt when I completed The Payout Game. (Release date 24/01/26).
I started it in September 2023, written on early weekday starts and weekends at the kitchen table and any spare time that was available. It was in truth, at times, like wading through treacle.
But The Payout Game’s kick-start grew out of a weekend in Malta, two podcasts and a book restoration this year.
On St Patrick’s weekend 2024, and in early August, I appeared on EZ Fiction – The Book Lovers Companion podcast hosted by Edith Zeitberger:
Two promotional interviews about the writing process and the story behind the creation of Malign Intent.
Then, at Easter, I took a trip with my wife, Fiona, to Malta. It was a last-minute-throw-some-clothes-in-a-bag and grab a Ryanair kind of weekend.
The Maltese do Easter the way New Orleans does Mardi Gras. We walked around Valletta on Good Friday and found most of the main streets cordoned off for the huge Stations of the Cross procession that wound its way around the city.
The Rosetta Stone to my Story
I had never seen anything like this before. To the rattling soundtrack of the city’s ċuqlajta I spotted a man in the far crowd opposite me. He hopped the barrier and ambled with a lolling gait toward the procession. He was so striking in appearance, he automatically slotted into a scene I was working on in The Payout Game. Sometimes you have to shoe-horn a character in, but he fitted the bill down to his odd-shaped runners. On the hotel stationery I pencilled a quick thumb-nail sketch of his profile, keeping the idea fresh in my head and on our return, he became the keystone. More than that, The Rosetta Stone to the story.
I quickly built the scene into the WIP and the whole book began to flow. Up to that point, it had been a stop-start process through a professionally challenging year. But the project now had legs, (albeit, limping along).
The second EZ Fiction podcast in August was a discussion between myself and three other authors in the USA about all aspects of writing, and the challenges that Indie’s and small press writers face. The best part of the discussion was when the mic was off, the cast finished, but we remained on the zoom call, with beers and whiskeys flowing. We spoke for about an hour and the enthusiasm and banter gave us all the necessary shot in the arm. I felt at the end, I had made some great friends, who have generously given their time helping out with the heavy-lifting that social media demands.
The Naked and the Dead
In September at a local warehouse, there was a weekend fire sale of movie props and old books, run by a Polish company leaving Ireland. Cash only and amid the piles of books, I found a little gem and almost perfect book from 1897 with a neat little dedication in fountain pen on the fly leaf. It cost me five euros.
My curiosity found the better of me and a few days later in heavy rain, I swung the car around to the warehouse. There were two skips outside the building full of unsold items. Uncovered. Getting destroyed in the rain. Dumped.
I couldn’t believe it.
Getting out, I rummaged around a skip and found a first edition Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead. A UK first edition from Allan Wingate circa 1949. The spine had come away and the cover badly stained and water-logged. I found this sight depressing.
But I took it anyway. No one wanted it, but I decided to bring it home.
I decided to give it a home.
The Payout Game: the final nudge!
I began by drying out the book. Every second page I placed a sheet of kitchen towel. I stood it between two book ends in the driest part of the house and left it for a week. The front matter was very damaged, but the book pagination was complete with only a small degree of foxing (brown stains as a result of the paper aging) on the pages. The absorbent paper towels had done their job. But leaving nothing to chance, I placed the book back on the shelf for further drying.
Another week and it was time to fix the spine back. Using a strong epoxy resin and clamps I re-attached the spine. The binding was intact so this process was easier than expected.
Then back on the shelf this time flat for another week.
I cleaned the boards down and the book was back to a reasonable state. Now it needed a dust cover. I spent a few hours researching and found a company in San Francisco that created facsimile covers. I ordered one.
I kept the book in a dry space and by early October, I had the cover.
It fitted perfectly.
I keep it at my writing desk now, I will never part with it but feel the glow of achievement restoring it.
It was the final ‘nudge’ to get The Payout Game over the line.
It launches January 24th, 2026. The early feedback from the ARC readers is encouraging. And I’m already starting to plan Crowe IV.
And the blank page beckons…
(c) Robert Craven
Website https://www.robert-cravenauthor.ie/
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About The Payout Game:
On the Dublin coast, nothing stays buried for long…
Garda Inspector P.J. Crowe is looking forward to a quiet Christmas in Roscarrig, a town on Ireland’s rugged east coast.
But when a body is discovered on the rocks below the lighthouse during a charity regatta, Crowe’s plans for peace are abruptly shattered.
The victim — one of Ireland’s most flamboyant celebrity bookies — is a man more accustomed to the bright lights of Dubai and New York than the bleak shoreline of North County Dublin.
When the death is hastily ruled a misadventure, Crowe isn’t convinced. His investigation draws him and his small team — Nesbitt, Redmond, and newcomer Megan Loughnane — into a dark underworld of illegal dog fights, crypto betting, and ruthless politics.
As the stakes rise, Crowe must uncover the truth before another life is lost — and before the killer cashes out for good.
The Payout Game is the third gripping instalment in Robert Craven’s contemporary Irish crime series, following A Kind of Drowning and Malign Intent.
Order your copy of The Payout Game online here.
And read more from Robert Craven on Writing.ie here.
