One Minute Past Midnight: A John Drake Mystery

A Canadian police officer tackles a complicated kidnapping case in Crosbie’s taut second mystery featuring RCMP corporal John Drake (after The Dead List). In 2004, Drake, who’s working for the General Investigative Service in British Columbia, is assigned the case of five-year-old Hailey Logan, who’s disappeared from her bedroom. Hours after the abduction, someone claiming to have Hailey calls the RCMP and in an electronically disguised voice asks for Drake and one of his colleagues to be present when they call back at 12:01 a.m. Drake is on hand when the next call comes through, and he soon realizes the case cuts close to home: in flashbacks that alternate between Northern Ireland in 1969 and British Columbia in the ’70s and ’80s, Crosbie gradually reveals why Hailey’s father, Bill—a farm supervisor with an Irish background—may have cooperated with the kidnappers, and how buried secrets from Drake’s past may come to light if he wants to bring the girl home safely. Crosbie throws a lot of balls in the air, but he juggles them with ease and brings everything to a satisfying conclusion. It’s a sly and suspenseful winner. (Self-published)