The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender by Marele Day

Publisher's Synopsis

Mark Bannister, writing 'the bestseller of the century' is found dead at his computer - the victim of a murder so perfect that Claudia Valentine smells a rat... and wants it caught.

The chase leads deep into the murky underworld of Sydney - a world where bright, tough Claudia must play a deadly high-tech game of cat and rat with the menacing overlord of the city's cancerous network of crime and corruption.

Witty, wryly humorous and fast-paced, The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender is a mystery with a twist, which brilliantly exposes the seamy action below the surface of the city's glittering facade.

My Review 

The first book in the Claudia Valentine series is The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender and is a quick and enjoyable introduction to the Sydney-based private investigator. Claudia's usual area of expertise is insurance investigation, but when an ex-school friend calls on her about her dead brother she feels compelled to help.

The dead man is Mark Bannister and he's a writer who was working on what he hoped would be his first bestseller. His death was treated by the police to be by natural causes because it looked as though his heart simply failed after all he already had a pacemaker. But two factors have made the death look suspicious: the first is the presence of heroin in Mark's bloodstream; the second was the presence of a strange note found with his body that simply reads "Terminal illness".

Not long into her investigation she comes to the chilling realisation that she is being tailed, and, although this tells her that she must be onto something, she is by no means comfortable to be the object of an unknown person's interest. The menacing presence of the unknown shadow looms over the majority of the investigation creating an ominous sense of danger and then, when Claudia finds out who it is that's been following her, it's amped up to outright terror.

The investigation leads her onto the trail of Harry Lavender, a Polish immigrant who has become an imposing underworld figure since settling himself in Australia. The key to her investigation lies in the connection between Harry Lavender and Mark Bannister. Claudia has to make that connection without getting herself, and those around her, killed.

This is a straightforward private investigator mystery that follows the well-worn path of chasing down obscure clues that show a bit of promise until the protagonist hits on something that leads to a dangerous encounter with bad guys who don't appreciate the snooping by a lousy woman P.I. The strength of the book lies in Claudia's strength, ingenuity and sheer doggedness. The setting of the book is a little bit more exotic than usual and Marele Day achieves a good sense of place in her depiction of Sydney. The only weakness I really found disappointing was a reliance on coincidence to move the story forward that went beyond what I would consider the bounds of believability.

Although on the surface we are given the impression that Claudia is an easy-going woman with a flippant attitude to life, we soon learn that she has had a rocky past that has featured a divorce complicated by two children being involved. She is also haunted by the unknown whereabouts of her father who has joined the ranks of Sydney's homeless. Everywhere she goes she remains on the lookout for her father, realising that even if she were to see him it is unlikely that she would recognise him anyway, but compulsively looking nonetheless. By story's end, it's obvious that she is a strong woman who doesn't give up regardless of the obstacles placed in front of her. She's the kind of protagonist of whom I would like to read more.

The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender is an excellent introduction to Claudia Valentine, with another three books following it at this stage. It's a short book that is consistently high-paced as Claudia worries away at every clue with a minimum of fuss and dithering. Mystery readers who are looking for another series featuring a strong female lead will do well to track this book down as a starting point.