My least favourite of the trilogy. Not entirely sure why it didn't grab me the way others did, however it might have to do with the larger cast, an attempt to incorporate the wider social implications in Britain during WWI, and therefore less time spent between Rivers and the other characters. Barker highlights the duality of human nature, which manifests in contradictory behaviour with a certain wilful blindness. Man's violent nature vs pacifism, brotherly love vs homosexuality -- one side condoned, the other condemned, publicly at least, yet living side by side and often intertwined. In Billy Prior, this manifests eventually in a literal split personality because nothing can be reconciled, given how it becomes necessary to suppress the unacceptable.

Unfortunately, the depiction of these dynamics, important as they are, took some of the tension out of the story. I missed the crackling dialogue contained in the other two books. And the fact that Rivers, revered so much by the others, is never revealed fully (in a story where sexuality is so central, Rivers remains an enigma).