Needles, Vinyl, and a Double Bass: The Music of P.J. Crowe

One of the more unexpected joys (& Unknown pleasures) of writing a series is discovering the small quiks and traits that stay with a character — the details that aren’t about plot or bodies or evidence, but about who they are when no one’s watching; how they spend their downtime.

For P.J. Crowe, that detail is music.

Across the three books, Crowe’s musical tastes surface in fragments — in the background of scenes, in late-night moments, in pauses between cases. They’re never centre stage, but they’re always there, shaping the man behind the badge.

Elvis’s Aloha from Hawaii sits alongside The Stranglers and The Ramones — music that carried attitude, defiance, and a refusal to smooth off the edges. Later came Henry Rollins: uncompromising, confrontational, and brutally honest. It was music for someone still testing the boundaries of the world and himself.

As Crowe got older, something shifted.

The noise gave way to space.

Now, when the day is done and the house is quiet, Crowe reaches for his vinyl cllection of jazz — Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Miles Davis. Music that doesn’t explain itself. Music that demands attention, patience, and a willingness to sit with discomfort. It circles, improvises, pushes against structure — much like Crowe’s investigations. It’s music for thinking, for reflection, for nights when the case won’t let go.

And then there’s the bass.

Crowe didn’t buy it new. He rescued it — an old upright bass, scarred and worn, and, restored. It stands in the corner of his home, heavy with history. He doesn’t play it to perform. He plays it to listen — to feel the vibration, the resistance of the strings, the grounding weight of something physical and real.

For Crowe, music isn’t escape.
It’s balance.

It’s where anger softens into understanding, where chaos finds rhythm, where a man who spends his days in the darkest corners of other people’s lives finds a way to stay human.

Every detective has a vice.
Crowe’s is sound.

And if you listen closely while reading, you’ll hear it there — between the lines.

Crowe’s Listening List

Elvis Presley - 'And the grass won't pay no mind'

The Stranglers - 'No more heroes'

The Ramones - 'Blitzkrieg Bop'

Henry Rollins / Black Flag - 'Nervous Breakdown'

Charles Mingus - 'Better get in your soul' (Ah Um)

John Coltrane - 'A Love supreme'

Miles Davis - 'So what'

The Payout Game launches 01.24.26

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