Unsolicited Press has published The Stained Glass Mustang, the third novel by South Carolina author Tim Bryant. Set against the shifting moral landscape of the contemporary South, the novel follows a disgraced advertising executive whose attempt at personal and professional redemption collides with faith, art, and exploitation.
After a drunk driving incident costs him everything, John Williams lives on a sailboat beside a shipyard, clinging to his last remaining client. His fortunes change when he inherits a vintage Mustang painted with vivid scenes from the life of Christ. To his client, the car is a public relations goldmine. To a fiercely principled single mother who believes the artwork may belong to a legendary Mexican street artist, using the car for profit is sacrilege.
As John navigates temptation, love, and his own damaged conscience, The Stained Glass Mustang examines how belief is shaped, sold, and sometimes betrayed in modern America. Drawing on elements of magical realism and Southern Gothic tradition, the novel explores redemption not as a performance, but as a reckoning.
Tim Bryant is the author of Blue Rubber Pool set in Jonesville and the coast, and The Bird in Your Heart: A Carolina Sea Island Story set on Edisto. He lives in Jonesville, where his writing is deeply informed by place, faith, and the contradictions of Southern life.