Answer in the Negative

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Rediscover the brilliance of Answer in the Negative in the Mermaid Collection - classic books by popular pioneering female authors republished to delight new generations of readers.

A 1950s Fleet Street murder mystery for classic crime fans – married couple and amateur sleuths Johnny and Sally Heldar are called into the National Press Archives to investigate some poison pen letters and cruel pranks, but things get a lot more sinister when the first murder happens . . .

With a foreword by Sophie Hannah

‘He was lying sprawled on his stomach just outside the open doorway of his office, with his head and shoulders out of sight . . .’

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, Sally and Johnny 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 and murky happenings. 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 and deadly danger. When another murder swiftly follows, the Heldars worry they are in over their heads.

And it is only a matter of time before one of them is next . . .

© Henrietta Hamilton 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2026