Mini-Me criminal with books at hand (8)
I believe the answer is:
imminent
'at hand' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'mini-me criminal with books' is the wordplay.
'criminal' is an anagram indicator.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'books' becomes 'NT' (abbreviation for New Testament).
'mini'+'me'='minime'
'minime' anagrammed gives 'immine'.
'immine'+'nt'='IMMINENT'
(Other definitions for imminent that I've seen before include "Close at hand, about to occur" , "Likely to happen at any moment" , "Happening any moment now" , "About to occur, any time now" , "Likely to occur at any moment" .)