Once to Die: The Other Side of Dead, Book 1

MYSTERY/THRILLER T.S. Epperson 345p, e-book, $16.99, ASIN B0BNLTM9JS

“God wasn’t coming,” a character thinks after speaking a prayer, one of his first, at the darkest moment of this sweeping novel of faith, suffering, and streetlife. As the blows rain down, Perry, an unhoused but entrepreneurial and community-minded young man realizes “This wasn’t going to be over till it was all the way over.” But Epperson—and God—have a surprise coming for Perry, who’s been made a target for what he accidently knows about a Boston drug lord’s business. Epperson’s fiction debut walks the line between life and death as Perry, in the warm mist of what comes next, gets a surprising chance to connect to the host of troubled characters populating this ambitious novel— and maybe find salvation.

God is coming, of course, just in mysterious ways. The story unfolds with Dickensian sweep, digging into the lives of Perry and his father, who live in an alley; the criminals after them; the penthouse executive who quite literally looks down on lives like these; the cops and district attorneys who can’t, for varied reasons, take meaningful action. The most convincingly dramatized lives here are the nun who helps a young woman find protection and support after a man close to the family rapes and impregnates her, and the demoralized priest facing the truth that the members of his congregation “are starving for faith.”

Perry laces through these lives in surprising ways, especially in the novel’s second half, which adds cosmic mystery to the realism of the first. The dialogue of street criminals meanwhile, is unconvincing, but the grind and difficulty of their tasks rings true. Epperson’s portrayal of a businessman who detests the unhoused and funds abortion groups has a satiric edge that contrasts with the heroism and decency of the restaurant and newsstand owners who aid Perry. Christian readers seeking redemptive fiction with compassion and a street edge will find much inspiration here.

This inspirational but gritty Catholic novel of street life and redemption is powered by compassion.

Great for fans of Joseph F. Girzone’s The Homeless Bishop, Maya Sinha’s The City Mother.