Don Francisco Bay's debut novel, Impulse, introduces readers to Gunnery Sergeant Alvarez "Dutch" Petersen, a Marine who, after twenty-one years of service and thirty-six confirmed kills, loses his wife and son to a mistaken-identity murder in San Diego. Rather than seek revenge, Dutch applies to a Catholic seminary in the Oakland Hills, and six years later, at age forty-four, he is ordained as Father Alvarez Petersen. His first assignment is Mission Dolores in San Francisco, the city's oldest building, where attendance has dropped forty percent amid abuse scandals. When a woman confesses to allowing her husband to beat her children, Dutch uncovers a web of crime involving heroin, military hardware, and a cleric with a hidden lineage. The novel, available in paperback, is the first in the Recon Priest series.
The story's relevance extends beyond San Francisco, touching on issues of faith, justice, and trauma that resonate across California, including Long Beach. As a port city, Long Beach understands the dangers of illicit trade; the novel's plot involves shipping manifests moving through the port at eleven o'clock at night with nothing anomalous on the paperwork, highlighting the real-world implications of such activities. Bay's portrayal of a man grappling with duality—soldier and priest—offers a nuanced exploration of how individuals and communities confront violence and corruption. The book has been compared to works by Nelson DeMille, Daniel Silva, and Greg Iles, and is expected to attract readers who appreciate faith as a serious subject rather than a costume.
For Long Beach businesses, the novel's focus on shipping and crime could spark conversations about local port security and the impact of illegal trade on the community. Moreover, the book's setting in California, Mexico, and Thailand underscores the international dimensions of such issues, which are pertinent to Long Beach's role as a global trade hub. The author's commitment to portraying the cost of justice—both personal and societal—makes the book a thought-provoking read for those interested in the intersections of faith, law, and community.
Bay's spare and unhurried prose, closer to literary crime fiction than genre thrillers, ensures that the action lands harder when it comes. The novel culminates at Saint Mary's Cathedral, mid-Mass, as tactical teams fan across the nave, and a Vatican letter reassigns Dutch to a struggling parish in San Diego—a move that sets up future installments. As the first in the Recon Priest series, 'Impulse' promises to delve deeper into the challenges of balancing faith and justice, themes that will continue to resonate with readers in Long Beach and beyond.
