Breaking Midnight: A True Story

by Lynn Walker

John Walker was a Miami undercover narcotics agent in the 1970s. Ten years later, he was in prison for smuggling 12,000 pounds of marijuana. In prison, he connected with a South American drug lord who was still running the family operation from inside the federal pen. Within months of being paroled, John began smuggling again—this time uncut Colombian cocaine. And this time, he put everything on the line: his freedom, his family and, ultimately, his life.

Breaking Midnight: A True Story shines a light on the gritty underbelly of Miami drug trafficking and the danger of leading a double life—as an undercover narc or a smuggler. Written by Lynn Walker based on numerous interviews with her father, John, this is an uncensored, up-close-and-personal account of how a good cop goes bad.

Genres: Crime, True Crime, Nonfiction, Memoir, Audiobook, Biography

302 pages, Paperback

First published January 13, 2023

About the author

LYNN WALKER is the author of the best-selling books, Midnight Calling: A Memoir of a Drug Smuggler's Daughter and Breaking Midnight: A True Story. Her debut novel is Three Days Earlier: A Psychological Thriller.

For many years, Lynn worked with high school students whose parents were drug addicts & alcoholics. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family.

Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@walkermemoir
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Reviews

[Julie Young Buckler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always Evolving

This is the story of a man with an adventurous and interesting life. He loved cocaine, money, scotch and being with fun people. His kids grow up and love cocaine too. It seemed to work okay, doing drugs with the kids. Ultimately, however, everyone realizes sooner rather than later that drugs really aren't the answer-all.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating story. It was amazing to see a good person turn to the dark side.

[Tami Bartshe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow.

Highly recommend.
This book has left me baffled, reading how about drugs and smuggling took over this guys life. Sounds like it would make a great movie.

[Annora · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many times in books like these, no one wants to take accountability. No one wants to admit that it’s a choice they made, and they are left picking up the shambles.

This was an exception which made it a really good read.

[Kay Kenyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was fascinated to have this view into smuggling, and especially savored the close POV of the smuggler (who was the author's father, who agreed to be interviewed and tell his story.) The details of his slide from lawman to cocaine smuggler was believable, memorable, and chilling. His humanity and his bad choices dance with each other, allowing us to root for him, while hoping for his redemption. I won't say how it ends, except that it was perfect.

[Kylie Bernal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Narcotics officer turned drug smuggler… absolute wildness, debauchery, and irresponsibility.

[Kelly Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick, entertaining book. I might need to just go ahead and read her follow-up memoir.

[Dennis Merryman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A portrait of a alternate reality.

I appreciated that this work was written by a daughter from her father's perspective. The story was told in a truthfully raw manner. I am able to relate to the story as a former addict, a child of an addict who was also abandoned by her father. I rated 5 stars because I fell that it is written in a forthright manner and I could not put it down.

[thewanderingjew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breaking Midnight, Lynn Walker, author
This true story, related by the daughter of a man who lost his way from the straight and narrow to the crooked and wide, is as authentic as any crime story can be. The narrative is almost like a personal conversation with the accused, as he confesses to her. It is easy to read and puts the reader right there with John Walker as he travels from one point in his life to another. Seemingly, he is always trying to improve his attitude and behavior, but most often he is failing because crime has become his drug of choice. He loves the excitement of what to him is a “game”. He never once thinks realistically about the victims he leaves in his wake because of his criminal activity. What he does best is making up excuses for his behavior, justifying acts that cannot be justified.
From the very first, it is difficult to admire or even like John Walker. It is even hard to sympathize with his problems because they are man-made and selfish. In addition, he shows no remorse for his behavior or his failures as a husband, father or son. As a former cop, he is a terrible example. He highlights the example of a dirty cop, of police brutality and of the crooked justice system. He seems to enjoy beating the system more than working within it.
He loves the drug world that he learned to navigate as a narcotics investigator. Did he forget how to move between both worlds? Finally, brainwashed, did he settle into the wrong one? Was he suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome? What could make the son of a clergyman, who was a marine, a seminary student, and a policeman, go so completely wrong? As time passes, he sinks lower and lower into the abyss, using drugs with his kids, dealing with them, and ultimately, dealing with Pablo Escobar.
Did the Cocaine make him lose sight of the reality of what he was doing, the harm he was causing to those he professed to love? Did he simply have absolutely no moral compass? Was he a sociopath? Walker was proud of the fact that he was a successful drug dealer. He was proud of the fact that the notorious Pablo Escobar, trusted him. He was proud of the fact that Columbian drug lords welcomed him into their families. He was proud of the fact that he was always honest with the drug cartel! What kind of a man is proud of being honest, in a world of dishonesty and violence, instead of being proud of simply being honest, of doing hard work that brings pride to himself and his family as a reward? Walker was only proud of the money he earned. He really defined the idea of only a thin line separating a cop from a criminal.
In addition, why were so many women so desperate, that regardless of this man’s background, they wanted to marry him? He was married three times. He had umpteen girlfriends. Yet he was what can only be defined as a low life. In reality he was also a drunk, an addict, a smuggler and a dealer. He was best at living a double life. In one, he was loving and kind. In the other, he had no moral compass. He corrupted his kids and seemed to have no remorse about anything he did. He simply made- up excuses for his depraved behavior.
This man and the people who seemed to gravitate toward him confounded me. What could set up such a tragic set of circumstances for a young man who actually started out with all the right values? His father was a Reverend. His mother was a woman of faith. Did his friends and a foolish high school incident set the stage for the rest of his life? What set him on the wrong track? That question stayed with me. Why was John Walker trapped between the world of honor and the world of dishonor? Why was he far more comfortable in the world he was supposed to be playacting in, as an undercover narcotics agent, than the world of a hardworking police officer and upstanding citizen?
Perhaps, since it takes a certain kind of person to be able to live a double life, in the end, that person has to choose one life or the other. One would hope it would be the honest life. However, for Walker it was not. This book shows how easily one can slip from one identity to another. Walker became so entrenched in the life of his alter ego that he lost sight of who he was when he started out as an officer of the law. He was good at being a narcotics agent, he was good at selling himself and his product; the system trained him well to be both a cop and a criminal. Written by the daughter he had with his first wife, the story is authentic, as it represents the way he told it to her, the story of how he became a drug smuggler because he was a good undercover, narcotics agent.

[Kathleen Riggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully Written Powerful Raw And Honest
This book Breaking midnight is the second book by Lynn Walker and is about her dad's infamous life, which she wrote in collaboration with her father before he died. Her father shares his life from growing up in a very religious household. John has the perfect life in the police force doing a job he loves; he is married and has two beautiful children Lynn and Chris. But then John makes a choice that will change his life forever.
This book is emotionally raw and heart-breaking, as John tells his story to Lynn who remembers her father being a very protective dad who was an undercover Miami narcotics agent. One evening John comes home high on coke grabs his clothes whilst everyone is sleeping leaves his wife a note and walks out the door. The family crumbles as Lynn and Rick grow up and try to come to terms knowing their dad is not coming home and wondering like all 8-year-old’s what she had done wrong.
John was very good at his job, and John played his role so well that his instincts where so honed for both sides the police and the drug dealers, that he found it very easy to turn from a narcotic agent to drug courier at the click of a switch.
Being undercover John has made plenty of contacts and once he works out the details his plan can now be executed. John crosses the line for the first time and brings a small amount of coke into Miami to sell to dealers. It goes of without a hitch and the adrenalin rush and more money than he earns in a year are a buzz for John and he reckons he can explain his coke use as a recreational user.
John enjoys this new lifestyle notoriety among the underworld fast cars, top restaurants women, money, adrenaline rushes every time they bring drugs into the country, and pure coke which is being used daily.
Like all plans this will not happen as like any drug courier life quickly spirals as John gets more contacts and better-quality drugs. John cannot be both though as his two worlds slowly collide together. By the time Lynn is in high school, her dad will be in prison for smuggling 12,000 pounds of marijuana.
Somehow nobody finds out he used to work undercover whilst in prison. John then meets and makes a connection with a powerful Colombian drug lord a notoriety he will grow to love, and which will take him to the top underworld drug dealer within months of being paroled. John not only gets to meet Pablo Escobar who is considered the world’s most powerful and ruthless drug lord but John buys cocaine from him.
John is a very charming monster, who waltzes back into Lynn and Chris life, as they become adults dishing out pure Colombian coke to them both. John’s reasoning is I can at least make sure they do not get anything bad from dealers, so as their father I am protecting them. Before long John has launched his son Chris’s coke-dealing career.
John eventually lost his children once again as they struggled with coke addition, and finally reached out to get help for their drug use. Eventually John ends up in hospital strung out, just about dead and with plenty of other complications. Eventually John finally comes clean to the doctors. It will not be an easy road, but John and Kathleen his third wife decide to stay together and rebuild their life. Eventually John reconnects with his children to begin to rebuild his relationship.
This book reads like fiction but is true and teaches you about family, relationships, forgiveness, healing, and the importance of both, as well as the long-term impact that grief and addition can have on not only a person but an entire family.
This was one of the best books I’ve ever read a very powerfully written book A truly exceptional book in every way beautifully written raw and honest. I cannot recommend this book Highly enough.
Thanks to Lynn Walker I received an advance review copy for free. I am part of the ARC group for Wildblue Press Goodread and BookSirens and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Walker went from being a Marine, cop, and then a Miami undercover narcotics agent to a smuggler. Not long after serving time for smuggling 12,000 pounds of marijuana, he resumed smuggling drugs. This time he worked with uncut Colombian cocaine. John risked family, his life, and breaking probation.

I was interested and intrigued by this true story. Prior to reading BREAKING MIDNIGHT, I knew nothing about what would convince a person to make such a switch, from a cop pretending to be a smuggler to being an actual smuggler, where he could lose everything. Everything.

Though BREAKING MIDNIGHT is an unconventional approach, mixing memoir and biography, it’s a faithful and captivating telling of John Walker’s story. The true story is told from John Walker’s perspective but is penned by his daughter Lynn Walker. This works, because it, as you can read in the Preface, is written with John Walker’s permission and in collaboration with him.

I wanted to see the progression (or digression) of John Walker’s journey, but continuing was difficult. This was not light reading. It was heavy and tough.

What kept me going was recognizing a daughter who suffered through his worst was writing his story. That meant forgiveness had taken place, enough to salvage a damaged and broken relationship.

Feelings of outrage, disappointment, and frustration coursed through me as I worked my way through his story. However, that’s not how I felt as I finished BREAKING MIDNIGHT.

If you want to see how I was moved, you’ll have to read this true story and experience it for yourself.

Thank you for the ARC, Lynn Walker. My review is freely given and it’s entirely my own view and words.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in the southeastern US (mostly Miami) in the 70s and 80s, this is a well-written autobiographical account (written by his daughter) about a narcotics detective who becomes a drug-trafficker. Apparently, it is a slippery slope!
I found it very interesting to learn about the narrator’s lifestyle. And that it normalized for him, such that in his mind, it was acceptable to be doing lines of coke with his kids. His addiction was not just to cocaine, but to money and to the buzz that he got from getting away with his double life. And he seemed (weirdly) proud of his underworld connections and in his ability to successfully deceive people.
Despite the heavy subject matter, the book reads easily.
I won a free copy of this book (thanks to the author & publisher!) and am voluntarily providing an honest review.

[Shell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book about an ex-undercover Miami cop who becomes a drug smuggler. John learned all the ropes on how to smuggle drugs as an undercover cop with the drug unit. Living two lives, as an undercover dealer and a husband/father caused many problems and in part, lead to him becoming a smuggler. He was quite good at it, until he trusted someone he shouldn't have and took the fall for a failed deal. It brought him 4 years in prison, of which he served 3 1/2. He started smuggling again while on parole and even got his kids involved in the smuggling and drug use. A real life, unbelievable story about a lifestyle that many find hard to give up. Luckily, he finally did and was able to repair many broken relationships. #GoodreadsGiveaway

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book. I remember when Lynn told me she was going to write a book. Not this book, but her first one, titled: Midnight Calling. That book is also a must read. After that book was published, And i finished it in four days, i was still hungry for more. More story. More juice. All the details.
So needless to say, when she told me she was going to write a second book (this one) I was elated. Lynn and her dad led a life that easily could be perceived as fiction, but it’s not. It’s All true. This book is amazing. I highly recommend it. Stop reading the reviews and just buy it. You’ll finish it very quickly because you won’t want to put it down.

[John Marricco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, what a crazy story. As I have been reading many highly detailed books of late, it was nice to read something a little rougher and grittier, and honestly very easy to process. I met a lot of people in my college years of the early '90's very into cocaine, including a roomate, but I have never tried it myself. I know how powerful coke is and how it can destroy people, pretty much just like it did John. But what an adventurous life this guy leads, although all at incredible costs. I found this book at times funny and sad but always intersting and "fun" to read.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye opening, terrifying, heartwarming

This the story of a cop gone down the rabbit hole of being a narc, a dealer, a smuggler and a terrible father and husband. Yet it's redeeming in that he got it together, made up as best he could for his past. No, that didn't make him perfect, nobody's perfect but it made him human in the most ardent of ways. I've been down some of the road he traveled and I recommend this as a really good read if you're interested in the real world of drugs, the life, the money, and consequences.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Walker was a Miami undercover narcotics agent in the 1970's. He decided to work the other side and smuggle marijuana and cocaine from Colombia. There was much more money and class on this side.
He was arrested and on parole, yet continued to smuggle. Had the knowledge of how not to get caught.
In all of this, his history with marriages and children suffered. This book is by his daughter and there is some good rapport finally in their lives.
Very interesting read.
This was sent to me by LibraryThing.com for early review.

[Lyslie Lewellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to see this man's view on his life from undercover cop to drug smuggler and back again. He justified all of his failures to his family and how he was aware of everything he was losing in the process but simply had no interest in stopping because he was chasing the next high, be it adrenaline or that Columbian white powder. In my opinion, he was egotistical and the cocaine was just another excuse to act selfishly. This book is another example of how no matter how old we are, we still just want to know that we mattered to that absentee parent.

[Randal White · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent book. Having spent my career as a law enforcement officer, I could not help but feel repulsed by the main character. What a con! His story was interesting, well written, and disappointing. And what he put his children through! That might be the worst of his sins. Kudos to the author (his daughter) for coming through the ordeal and surviving. I hope that her story will help others like her.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book! Whether or not he thought he was addicted to cocaine at the time, he certainly was. When you are choosing drugs over family, work, health etc the drug is in control! Most everybody has a 'rock bottom' when they realize this. Unfortunately, for some, it's the grave. For others it's time to put the pieces back together, make amends- some need AA/ NA or similar group- some don't. Good Read!

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a complimentary copy of this book on Goodreads. The book was a quick read of the life story of a preacher’s son that went from the service into law enforcement and ultimately into a life of drug smuggling and dealing. The most interesting aspect of this book is how the subject’s was able to tell his story. I hope they were able to heal through the writing process. Recommended reading for anyone interested in the explosion of cocaine in the 80’s from the point of view of a smuggler.

[Regina M. Anavy · Rating 5 out of 5]

True story of a narcotics officer turned drug smuggler

I couldn’t put this book down once I started reading. Excellent writing by a woman who recorded her father’s words and turned it into his memoir. The honest description of his thrill-seeking mindset and behavior and the way it affected others is a story of redemption and survival.

[Stephen Watts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lynn did a great job pulling together her father's story, which is fascinating in its detail and because of the perspective of a pre- and post- Miami Vice era Miami undercover narcotics detective turned drug smuggler. Along with all that, we see the impact his life choices had on his family(s). Excellent book, kept my attention throughout.

[Allison Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible storytelling

I read Ms Walkers memoir and as soon as I finished, checked to see if she had any other published works. To my delight, I saw Breaking Midnight was just released and immediately started reading it and could not put it down

[Brian Skillin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent true story

From vice cop to drug smuggler to straight and narrow, this excellent read will be hard to put down once you pick it up. With great pacing and pathos, this book is one you’ll want on your book shelf.

[Chris Toombs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very exciting book. Really does a good job portraying the highs and lows of a high octane lifestyle. Was looking for a good true crime book and this didn’t disappoint. Once I started it I couldn’t seem to put it down.

[Sheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

Not fabulous, but an excellent account by a daughter of a real-time DEA agent that turns. Deals with the life of an undercover agent, then dealer, the fallout, and the family relationships. Great job by the author. Very authentic.

[Rebecca neice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very realistic glimpse into the life of drug abuse and buying and selling drugs.

This was a really good story that gives a accurate look into the way drug users think and the drug world works.

[Rick Gilbertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Read!

I read countless books drug smugglers. I liked this one because it gives readers a great inside view of high level smuggling. I've never disliked a smuggler more than this guy however.

[Jules minne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved both her books

I couldn't put these books down. A great read. Her true life story is so amazing to see a recovery attic make a full recovery. It hit home forsure in some ways.