A Scream in Soho

the long version

German bombers are overhead and there is danger the streets of London. A tall foreigner with strange 'blind' looking eyes triggers one of Detective Inspector McCarthy's infamous 'hunches'. Later that night, during the pitch blackness of the wartime blackout, a piercing scream rends the air and Detective Inspector McCarthy is first on the scene to find a bloodied murder weapon, a woman's lace handkerchief, but no victim to be seen. As McCarthy attempts to unravel the mystery, the bodies start to pile up, and the whodunit becomes a more complex and colourful story of secret government plans, cross dressing German spies, and murderous dwarves. McCarthy must move through the dark, seedy Soho underworld - peopled by Italian Gangsters and glamorous Austrian aristocrats alike - not only to find his murderer, but to save Britain's defences against the Nazi threat. Set in London during the early days of the Second World War, A Scream in Soho is an evocative and suspenseful London novel from the golden age of British detective fiction. - https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/john-g-brandon/scream-in-soho.htm