Answer in the Negative

Toby calls on his friends Sally and Johnny Heldar, two amateur sleuths, to investigate. Posing as researchers, Sally and her husband Johnny go undercover to scout out the myriad of suspects at the archive. But just as the Heldars begin to make some progress, Morningside is found dead in his office, bludgeoned by a box of glass negatives. When another suspicious death occurs within the company, the Heldars fear they may be in over their heads.

About the author

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.

Product details

• Authors: Henrietta Hamilton
• Publisher: Penguin Books Uk
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Release: 19.03.2026
• EAN: 9781405991032
• ISBN: 978-1-4059-9103-2
• No. of pages: 320
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 198 mm x 35 mm
• Series: The Mermaid Collection
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Contemporary literature (from 1945); Fiction > Suspense; City of London, FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Historical, FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Amateur Sleuth, FICTION / Crime, Classic crime, c 1950 to c 1959, Classic crime and mystery fiction, Crime and mystery: private investigator / amateur detectives, Crime and mystery: women sleuths / detectives