Bottled Spider by John Gardner
London, 1940. As the Blitz takes grip, a young and naive policewoman is promoted beyond her abilities and experience, to work in C.I.D. She is to take the place of the men going off to war. Soon Suzie Mountford is caught up in a case of serial murder that augurs to be more sinister and more complex - and more dangerous - than anything she has bargained for.