Answer in the Negative by Henrietta Hamilton

Answer in the Negative by Henrietta Hamilton published 1959 searching for secrets in the files.... The publishers Penguin Michael Joseph are producing a new series called the Mermaid Collection: neglected works by 20th Century women authors, each introduced by a present-day writer. Excellent! What a great idea. Several of the books have featured on the blog in the past – Margaret Kennedy’s Lucy Carmichael, Helen McCloy’s Through a Glass Darkly, Clemence Dane’s A Regiment of Women. (you can use search box to find the posts) This one looked interesting – a husband-and-wife sleuth team solving a murder in Fleet St in the 1950s. Sally and John Heldar run a bookshop, and live in a nice flat in Bloomsbury, with their child and Nanny. They are called in to help out in a picture agency: an organization providing photographs for newspapers, magazines and authors. There has been an outbreak of poison pen letters and childish tricks at the office. The trouble is directed at one particular man,…