Answer in the Negative

Name: Answer in the Negative
Price: 28.99 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9781405991032

Henrietta Hamilton

$28.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Penguin Books Ltd
16 June 2026

Fiction & Literature; Classic crime

Series: The Mermaid Collection

Discover your new favourite forgotten female classics with the Mermaid collection - No 7- Henrietta Hamilton's Answer in the Negative with a foreword by Sophie Hannah

Frank Morningside, assistant at The National Press Archives on Fleet Street, is receiving nasty poison pen letters. His superior Toby Lorn wants to put a stop to it, so he calls on his friends Sally and Johnny Heldar.

Married amateur sleuths, the Heldars agree to go undercover, posing as researchers to scout out the many suspects in the Archives. After all, Fleet Street is home to plenty of seedy types. But, soon after they begin, they find a body - bludgeoned to death by a box of glass negatives.

Suddenly, the genteel world of the archives is a tangled web of suspicion. When another murder swiftly follows, the Heldars worry that one of them maybe next . . .

By: Henrietta Hamilton
Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 197mm, Width: 130mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 206g
ISBN: 9781405991032
ISBN 10: 1405991038
Series: The Mermaid Collection
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 16 June 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Henrietta Hamilton is the pseudonym for Hester Denne Shepherd who was born in Dundee in 1920 and educated at St Hugh's College, Oxford, earning an honours degree in Modern Languages. During the Second World War, Hamilton served in the Wrens. Afterwards, she worked in a London bookshop, gaining first-hand experience of antiquarian bookselling - the background of her crime-solving duo, Sally and Johnny Heldar. During her life, Hamilton enjoyed writing and hill-walking. She died in 1995 in Hastings, East Sussex.

Reviews for Answer in the Negative

Reader praise for Answer in the Negative * : * A classic whodunnit, well written and engrossing -- Reader Review ***** Hugely enjoyable classic crime -- Reader Review ***** A gem! -- Reader Review *****