Nineteen Minutes to Midnight (The Jerome Adewale Series Book 1)

Time Is Ticking — And So Is History

When Jerome Adewale moves into a crumbling house on the edge of a quiet village, he expects boredom. What he finds instead is a mystery that defies time itself: a grandfather clock that appears each night at exactly nineteen minutes to midnight. The clock isn’t broken — it’s a doorway. And on the other side waits Arabella Wentworth, a 19th-century poet tormented by a sinister figure known only as The Shadow Man.

As Jerome, alongside his friends Samantha and Olly, dives deeper into this strange connection across centuries, he unearths secrets buried by time, confronts dangers both spectral and real, and begins to realize that the past may not be as unchangeable as it seems. But bending time has consequences — and some shadows refuse to stay buried.

Start your journey through time—discover Nineteen to Midnight today.

Excerpt from the book

The Old Grandfather Clock

Summer, 2022

Jerome Adewale had never liked change. He’d never wanted to leave Dashford in the first place. It was his home. It always had been. Yet, that wasn’t going to change his dad’s mind. This wasn’t their move; it was his. This was his new job, and it had always been his dream to move back to the countryside in some weird attempt to revive a sense of childhood nostalgia. It just so happened that Jerome’s stupidity had been the catalyst for it happening. Jerome had never lived in the countryside and had never had a desire to. That was his dad’s thing.

‘But this job is too good to turn down,’ he’d told them on that sunny evening in the early months of the previous spring. More like your pride is damaged, so all you can do is run away, Jerome had thought but felt wise to keep it to himself.

There was some truth in his dad’s reasoning, though. Jerome had to admit it. Becoming the assistant headteacher at a new school was a step in the right direction for his old man to achieve his dream of becoming a headteacher someday. The way Jerome saw it: maybe his dad should even be thanking him, as if that was ever going to happen.

In truth, Jerome would have been supportive of the idea of moving if it hadn’t meant pulling him out of his current school where he’d not only been the captain of the football team, but also knew he was nailed on to be head boy in his final year – Mrs Spiel, the headmistress, had practically told him as much towards the end of the previous term – but had any of that come into consideration? Hell no! When Marlon Adewale had his mind set on something, it was very difficult – practically impossible – to change, especially when his pride had been damaged.

His mum had told them she’d fallen in love with the house as soon as she’d seen it. ‘It’s the sort of thing you’d see in a film!’ she’d said, and that had been her only comment on the move. She’d already applied for a transfer to the nearest hospital, and apparently, nurses were in short supply, so things were looking promising, albeit if it meant that she’d have to start on the night shifts initially. Something she seemed happy to do.

‘This move will be good for all of us,’ she said, echoing her husband, as Jerome peered out of the back window of their car. Caleb, his younger brother, had been as enthusiastic as ever about moving house. Of course, he was. He wouldn’t admit it, but even if their parents couldn’t see, Jerome wasn’t blind. He knew that Caleb was being bullied at his old primary school. He wasn’t sure by who, but he knew. Perhaps it was the fact he was short or that he was the only black kid in his class. Either way, it didn’t matter now; he was well rid of it. Running away from it all. Like father, like son.