The Trial of Tears- The Cross Examination Book 5

The United States of 2041 is a nation transformed by the Statute on Religious Authority. Private faith is legal, but defending religious truth claims from a public platform is a federal offense. Christian Cross, a fifty-two-year-old professor of apologetics at a small Christian university in eastern Tennessee, has already survived four grueling federal trials defending his faith.

But the fifth trial is the one he dreads most.

Reeling from the loss of his wife, Maren, to cancer three years prior, Cross is subpoenaed by the ruthless Office of Statutory Inquiry (OSI). The charge: Educational Truthfulness. The state argues that no honest educator can publicly teach the benevolence of an omnipotent God in a world shattered by incontrovertible suffering. To prove their case, the prosecution intends to drag Cross’s most private agonizing moments into the light, admitting his intimate bedside journals into evidence and calling his wife’s hospice chaplain to the stand.

In a Knoxville federal courtroom, a grieving father and scholar must stand before the bench to publicly defend the goodness of the God he held a dying woman’s hand to. Driven by legal philosophy, raw grief, and theological depth, The Trial of Tears explores the profound intersection of the existential problem of evil, the necessity of lament, and the unshakeable hope found in the tears of a Savior who refuses to skip a step.

Can faith survive when your deepest sorrow is used as evidence against your soul?

What is The Trial of Tears about?

The Trial of Tears is set in the United States of 2041, where the Statute on Religious Authority allows private faith but makes defending religious truth claims from a public platform a federal offense. Christian Cross, a 52-year-old apologetics professor in eastern Tennessee, has already survived four federal trials, and this fifth case brought by the Office of Statutory Inquiry is the one he dreads most. The charge is Educational Truthfulness: the state contends that no honest educator can publicly teach that an omnipotent God is benevolent in a world of undeniable suffering. To make its case, the prosecution introduces Cross’s bedside journals from the years his wife Maren was dying of cancer and calls her hospice chaplain as a witness. The novel takes up the problem of evil, the role of lament, grief, and the hope found in the tears of Jesus, and asks whether faith can survive when one’s deepest sorrow is used as evidence against one’s soul.

Who wrote The Trial of Tears?

It was written by Alfred Basta, a professor, author, and musician.

What genre is The Trial of Tears?

It is Christian fiction, a courtroom novel about the problem of suffering, which means theodicy and lament are argued in testimony and lived out in a widower’s grief rather than treated abstractly.

Who is The Trial of Tears for?

The page names no audience directly, but the book suits Christian readers interested in apologetics, the problem of suffering, and grief, and readers who enjoy courtroom fiction with theological themes.

Is The Trial of Tears part of a series?

Yes. It is Book 5 of The Cross Examination series, following four earlier trials of Christian Cross. You can find the series on Amazon.

Where can I buy The Trial of Tears?

The Trial of Tears is available in paperback, hardcover and Kindle editions. The hardcover ISBN-13 is 979-8199803120 (283 pages, published June 3, 2026).

Amazon (paperback) | Amazon (hardcover) | Amazon (Kindle) | Indigo (author page)

About the author: Alfred Basta is a professor, author of Ward No. 8 and The Malgrave Letters, and musician as The Bastas Project.

Last updated: October 12, 2026