The Pacifist: A Novel

By Lyn Bixby. Rootstock Publishing, 2026. 282 pages. $19.99/paperback; $7.99/eBook.

The pacifist character makes only a brief appearance in this mystery novel named after him.

Set in 1968 at the height of the Vietnam War, Chris Thompson goes to the U.S. Army induction center in Boston, Mass., prepared to refuse going into the army. When he does not step forward when ordered to do so, two soldiers grab him by the arms and remove him from the room. After several minutes, the other draftees hear a big commotion, and an ambulance is called.

The army claims that Chris, who had shared he was working with the Boston Draft Resistance, accidentally fell down a flight of stairs, and he dies in a hospital without regaining consciousness. Chris’s sister, Lisa, is convinced that the army lied and intentionally killed her brother. She vows to discover the truth which means she has to take on the U.S. government.

Like any good whodunit, the plot of The Pacifist takes many twists and turns before we learn what actually happened to Chris and why. In the process, we meet a variety of characters and suspects including corrupt army officers, heroin dealers, an FBI informant, a courageous civil rights attorney, a couple of draft resistance activists who conduct a midnight raid on the army’s induction center, and two new recruits who are determined to do everything they can to get kicked out of the military. In virtually every scene, there’s a mysterious character who calls himself “Johnny Dollar” and appears to make his living shining shoes and working as a janitor in the FBI office.

I found the book to be a real page-turner. The author keeps us guessing until the very last scene. This is Lyn Bixby’s first novel, but he clearly knows how to write. He spent a career as a newspaper journalist and won a Pulitzer Prize for one of his stories.

More importantly, Bixby lived through the era that he writes about in this story. He was drafted into the army during the Vietnam War, and he found all aspects of military life disagreeable. His characters constantly convey their distaste for the army.

The author also does a terrific job of recreating the era of the late 1960s. Throughout the book, Bixby refers to popular songs and other cultural markers of that time. His characters even use phrases that were common at the time, like “right on.”

I was especially impressed with how well he writes about the antiwar subculture, as I was immersed in it myself as an antiwar activist and draft resister. I could certainly relate to the induction center scene, but I obviously didn’t suffer the same fate as the pacifist in the novel. In my case, I was kicked out because the FBI didn’t appreciate my handing out leaflets to other draftees telling them why I wasn’t willing to go to Vietnam.

The Pacifist would appeal to others besides those of us who lived through those tumultuous times. I found it relevant because today’s political environment has so many similarities to the 1960s. It’s inspiring to see how the characters in this book are willing to take on “the system” and ultimately succeed.

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A member of Santa Cruz (Calif.) Meeting, Robert Levering was a full-time organizer with American Friends Service Committee and other peace groups during the Vietnam War. He is the executive producer of The Movement and the “Madman,”which premiered on PBS in 2023 and is now streaming on Prime Video.