The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender

From the winner of the Shamus Crime Fiction Award for the best PI paperback. 'Terminal illness. Terminal containers. I'd seen one yesterday: Mark's coffin. Transported from this world into the next. I wondered about the contents of these huge containers, wondered how many kilos of heroin were down there right this minute.'

Mark Banister, 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 thriller with a twist, which brilliantly evokes the sleaze below the surface of the city's glittering facade. 

'Claudia is full of energy, wit.and a disdain for the pretentious.' The Canberra Times 'Marele Day's Claudia Valentine is fast becoming my favourite detective.' Newcastle Herald '.in Ms Valentine, Marele Day has created a heroine for the 90s.' Time Out, London 'Exciting, fast-paced and plenty of just slightly shabby style - in fact everything a good detective yarn should be.' The Daily Telegraph