One Minute Past Midnight: A John Drake Mystery

by Martin Crosbie

Two brothers visiting Ireland are saved by a mysterious priest. A shy young girl must fight her way out of her smalltown. A police officer befriends a displaced killer. And a native man with a gift of seeing into the future flees his village.
All their stories are connected as John Drake must come to grips with whether to reveal his true identity in order to save a missing child or continue living in the darkness.
The chilling final installment in bestselling author Martin Crosbie’s John Drake Mystery series is now available (this can also be read as a standalone novel).

Genres: Mystery

290 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 18, 2024

About the author

In a press release, Amazon called Martin Crosbie’s debut novel My Temporary Life one of their success stories. His self-publishing journey has been chronicled in Publisher's Weekly, Forbes, and Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper. Martin’s recent release The Dead List (A John Drake Mystery) was awarded a publishing contract by Kindle Press.

He’s also the author of My Name Is Hardly - Book Two of the My Temporary Life Trilogy, Lies I Never Told - A Collection of Short Stories, How I Sold 30,000 eBooks on Amazon's Kindle - An Easy-To-Follow Self-Publishing Guidebook, 2016 Edition, and Believing Again: A Tale Of Two Christmases.

Martin was born in the Highlands of Scotland and currently makes his home just outside Vancouver, on the west coast of Canada.

Reviews

[Mary]

Abandoned because I don’t want to read about the violence that I saw in the very first chapter.

[Imeelynn Corliss · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many characters to follow and frequent jumps forward and back in time. So I had to go back and reread some sections to make sure I understood what was harkening. Everything came together in the last few chapters of the book.

[Rebecca Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too complicated. Too many characters bouncing around in various time periods.

[Daniel Davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A confusing mystery

I almost gave up on this book a number of times. The problem with it was that it followed several different characters and at different times in their lives over several decades. Just as you’d be getting interested in what seemed to be the main thing - which was the mystery of the missing girl - suddenly we’d be 20 or 30 years earlier and dealing with entirely different people, in different settings, who did not seem to be related to what one assumed was the main story. The abduction was not the main story actually, and eventually the lives of all those other characters – JJ, Tracy, and Douglas - all do come together and make it to the end of the book. It was well enough written that I wanted to know where it was going, but it was very slow getting there and more than a little confusing.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great read from Mr. Crosbie. I really enjoyed how the story never dulled and kept a nice steady pace. No fillers in this book. I really enjoy a good mystery book. This one did not disappoint at all. I was not able to guess anything for a good while it really kept me engaged. Hats off to this new release!

[Victoria Motil · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome story!

i was born and raised in BC. Went to school at Sardis secondary high school, visited Hope often. this was a well done story with the connection to Ireland (my ancestors were Irish). i enjoyed it immensely!

[Jean Hamm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martin sets a very good stage for the character development with a plot that brings the 1/2 degree of separation all together in a twist.

[Marie Price · Rating 5 out of 5]

And not a second too soon.

Very captivating and well written. The emotional and compassionate personalities shine through even in the darkest of times. Excellent book.

[John Roach, · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite readable

[msjohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit difficult to follow at first. Definitely a book you need to stick with and read quickly to get the full impact