In the final section of part 1 the focus switches to Kath, an ‘old’, experienced, but ruined prostitute whose three kids were taken into communal care and whose luck has steadily deteriorated since that time.

It also further elaborates on the motherly part of the prostitutes’ lives; Elaine is expecting a baby but continues in her job - she starts working in a pair with Jean who seems to have a plan of some sort to trap and find the killer.

It is narrated by Jean who tells the story of her friendship, teamwork, and romantic relationship with Carol, a young and vulnerable fellow prostitute who one day disappeared under dramatic circumstances.

The novel introduces some of Pat Barker's stable motifs and themes, e.g. the different smell of a person's body when they are afraid; the preoccupation with the visual and the enigma of the human eye; the destruction of clichés, s.a. the belief that prostitutes are poor, unintelligent, and do not have other opportunities for work: "I like this life.

Similarly to Kelly's story in Union Street, Barker's first oeuvre, in Blow Your House Down is the obscure middle-class character (here, a serial killer, there a child rapist), apparently a well-to-do family man, but in reality one who has an unresolved complex stemming from his childhood.

There is a telling parallel between them: the rapist from Union Street eats a peppermint chewing gum, the murderer in Blow Your House Down violet-smelling candies, when they are about to commit their crimes - perhaps a way of keeping their egos clean from the dirty business of their ids.